Project Hayabusa:II
by freelancer92
Summary: Project Hayabusa:II is the story of the second Hayabusa Program. After the first armor project failed, a second project has been started. This is the story of the Spartan-IV Program, one of the most controversial stories to tell.
1. Opening Credits

**Project: Hayabusa II**

**Dear Reader,**

**Freelancer92 here, welcoming you to my "new" story, **_**Project: Hayabusa II, **_**the revamped, re-energized, and re-done version of I Want To Be a Spartan. After writing IWTBAS for several chapters, I noticed several faults and places where I "fucked up". I wanted to fix that immediately but I at the same time, I needed to complete my original idea. After re-reading my story, I realized that I did not come across with my original idea at all. Immediately, I planted my ass on the couch and picked up my laptop to review what I had ****done**** wrong. For several weeks now, I have thought and mentally review how I was going to write it this time around. I feel the **_**Project: Hayabusa II **_**will be the culmination of my writing abilities, as well as mixing and matching several writing styles. **_**P**__**:HII**__**will not debut for some time as I gather and organize my ideas**** and talk with my "co-author" Nitro288.**_


	2. The Armory Updated

Lt. Colonel Yeungs Armory.

**Armor**

**Spartan**

**MJOLNIR Mark VII Rogue**

MJOLNIR Mark VII Rogue armour is the battle armor the Hayabusans wear. It has been modified and improved a tremendous amount.

The old metal liquid crystal had been modified to triple the user's strength and neural reaction time.  
Instead of the multi-layer alloy, the shell has been changed to aggregated diamond nanorods.  
The power pack has been changed so it uses an anti-matter reaction to generate one hundred percent more energy.  
The shields has been modified so they carry an EMP coating to it. When the plasma hits the shields, the EMP force disrupts the magnetic containment around the plasma and makes it disperse before it hits the shell, causing the damage to be much less.  
The armor also had plasma bladed gauntlets.

**SPI Armor Mark III**

The new SPI mark III armor is another creative achievement from the mind of Lt. Colonel George Yeung.

has the adaptive camoflauge of the previous series,  
ARAC armor lined with tantalium halfium carbide and titanium-A  
fullerene mesh to provide thermal shielding and to take a few hits without actually injuring the Spartans  
deflective faraday shielded to provide electromagnetic and thermal cover

**Infantry Arms**

**Ammunition**

Rifle

7.62mm tungsten nitride (W-N) magnums ( 50 powder per casing)

7.62mm DU magnums( 50 powder per casing)

7.62mm W-Ni-Mn, white phosphorous tumbler magnums( 50 powder per casing)

7.62mm explosive ultrasonic transducer (EUT) rounds

12.7mm DU magnums

12.7mm W-Ni-Mn, white phosphorous tumbler magnums

12.7mm explosive ultrasonic transducer (EUT) rounds

14.5mm DU kinetic penatrator

14.5mm W-Ni-Mn, white phosphorous Hydrashock kinetic penatrator

Shotgun

Spherical Buckshots

Slugs

50mm Grenades

M-89 Propane/Butane-based Thermobaric Grenades

M102 EMP Grenades

M506 W-Ni-Mn tumbler flechettes canister

M156 Pyramidal Buckshot Canister shots

M101 W-Ni-Mn Hydrashock tumbler slugs (Brute Slugs)

M321 Dragon's Spite

Hand Grenades

HE/Shrapnel

White Phosphorus Incendiary

EMP

Flashbang

Binary VX-7

Smokescreen

Thermobaric (CQ/Shock)

**Marine Weaponry**

1) The** M55A **was an oddity in that it was modified almost immediately after the first batch of the BR55 came off the assembly lines due to popular demand from the troops for an all purpose assault weapon. The two times scope was replaced with either a variable 3x-5x or a thermal/night vision scope. Although heavier, the scope could be replaced with a video camera linked directly into the soldier's HUD. The stock was redesigned to match the general curvature of Marine, Helljumper, and Spartan armor via form-fitting plasti-steel foam pads, greatly decreasing felt recoil and increasing accuracy. Due to many of the marine jury-rigging the original semi-automatic only variant to full auto capable, UNSC engineers went ahead and installed an adjustable firing rate; single round for long range precision shooting beyond 200m, three round burst for mid range combat from 50m to 200m, and full auto for the close range shredding. The rifle came with the optional 5 round capacity wide dispersal semi-automatic shotgun or a 50 mm grenade launcher attachments mounted on a picatinny rail. The warping resistant titanium barrel could be attached with a barrel extension and a flash suppressor for long range fire or a silencer. To reduce weight, most of the weapon is made of Titanium-A and advance high strength plastics with chrome plating where necessary, a feature universal to all UNSC light arms.

The round size was changed to 7.62 x 63 mm rifle magnum, known to the ground pounders as "The Super 7", increasing the power of the round with a new generation of propellant and increasing the powder volume of each casing by 20 percent, resulting in 74,000 PSI as opposed to the 50,000 PSI of the 7.62 x 51mm rounds. A constant recoil bolt system where the impulse of the recoil is stretched out over time, a universal feature on all UNSC light arms, reduces the otherwise extreme recoil to levels capable of relatively accurate full automatic fire up to about an average of 50m, giving the rifle a much needed edge over plasma weapons in close range combat.

Also, the Super 7 utilizes a bullet design that would have been considered 'cruel and unusual' and would have been banned by The Hague Accords were it not for the Covenant: the Tungsten Carbide WP Tumblers. The traditional specially harden pure ferric steel rounds, while effective against conventional armor, were lacking against personal energy shields and were replaced with harder hitting rounds with a slower spin rate. The standard marine round is the Teflon coated Tungsten Carbide tumblers that carries a small White Phosphorus (WP) core within the bullet. The W-C tumbler possesses several advantages over traditional rounds. The round's high density, toughness, and velocity give it a semi-anti-material capability designed to ensure a highly elastic collision to deal with Elite personal shielding. The specially designed ballistics and high velocity of the round gives an unprecedented high probability of tumbling upon deep flesh impact that creates a supersonic vortex that sends a hydrostatic shockwave through its victim before fragmenting from rotational stress; Combined, the tumbling and fragmentation cause a shotgun-like effect that causes damage far beyond the wound. Once fragmented, the WP core is released and burns inside the victim. If the flesh depth is insufficient the round does not achieve tumbling, overpenatration is inevitable.

7.62mm x 63mm rifle magnums, 32 round magazine  
600 rounds a minute  
Round Velocity: 1150 m/s  
Bullpup design  
3-5X, Nightvision/IR, Camera scope on picatinny rail.  
5 round Shotgun, or 50mm grenade twist-on attachment on picatinny rail.  
Constant recoil hammer system  
Form fitting curvature butt  
Adjustable firing rate (single, semi, full)  
Barrel extension and Flash Suppressor,  
Max Effective range: 800m (16x plasma light arms range)

**M55B**

A carbine version of the M55A, the weapon is significantly shorter and lighter barrel. Meant for urban and tight combat, it can be fitted with a 5 round capacity wide dispersal semi-automatic shotgun, though a 50mm grenade launcher can be used as well. Accuracy is traded for weight and maneuverability in confined spaces, with only an effective range of 300m, which is the boundary where the vast majority of all engagements occur. The B variant is typically used by a fire team's shotgunner in closed environments. All machinations and workings aside from the length are carried over. The B variant is more prevalent than the A variant.

**M267** **automatic shotgun** copied the designs of many centuries old models, most notably the USAS-12 and the AA-12. With an external snail magazines, the full capacity of the gun was 24 rounds of pyramidal buckshot, deer slugs, or the incendiary white phosphorus. A constant recoil bolt system where the impulse of the recoil is stretched over time, a universal feature on all UNSC lightarms, reduces the recoil to levels capable of accurate full automatic fire.

24 round snail magazine  
Constant recoil system, Form fitting curvature foam butt  
Conventional receiver  
Max effective range: 25m (.5x plasma light arms range)  
Laser sight

**  
M6E **  
Complete with a 2x scope meant for looking around corners, the quick action slider of the M6C, and an 11.43mm (.45 cal) x 27mm Multipurpose HE Ultrasonic Transducer rounds of the M6D or standard ACP, the E variation is considered the perfected final form of the M6 series. A special feature of the MPHE rounds is that when it encounters exceptionally stiff resistance, the forward concave collapses and the transducer effectively becomes a High Explosive Squash Head (HESH) round, particularly effective in disrupting shields.

9 round magazine  
Accepts AP/HE UT, Ballistic Tip  
2x scope  
Max effective range: 50m

**M598 LMG **  
Continuing the legacy of the MG42 inspired machine guns, the M598 LMG is capable of 800 rounds a minute, is accurate up to 500m, and can sustain its rate of fire far longer than a BR55A can. The weapon is meant to be employed on the fire team level. To prolong its fire and increase accuracy and adaptability, the weapon has a snap-on, fin cooled, warping resistant Titanium-B barrel with a forward grip that makes it easily exchangeable; a standard marine light machine gunner carries two barrels. Using a universal receiver, the LMG can accept both belts and all forms of magazines. While it does a have a scope, most operators use the combination of the laser sight and the equally powerful 2-3x magnification on their HUD for mid range engagements. There have been unsubstantiated rumors of marines in the field threading the muzzle and fit the BR55A's barrel extension onto the M598 for long range sharp shooting and fire support up to 800m, a role normally reserved for the GPMG and the HMG.

150 linked-round belt  
Universal receiver  
800 rounds per minute  
Long, easily exchangeable barrels  
Conventional receiver setup  
3x-5x scope, IR, night vision, laser sights  
Constant Recoil system  
Form fitting pads  
Bipods  
Max effective range: 500m (10x plasma light arms), 950m with barrel extention.

**M625 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG)**

Basically an up sized version of the M598, the GPMG is issued on the platoon level and carries over all the capability of the LMG, though with the advantage of greater accuracy and a far longer sustainable rate of fire as well as an 80 percent parts interchangeability with its lighter cousin. In addition, the GPMG can be fitted to fire 12.7mm rounds from a special 32 round magazines if standard belts are not available; since mobile infantry rarely carry belts of 12.7mm round due to the weight, the 32 round magazine is often far more prevalent. To maximize the amount of 12.7mm rounds available to a platoon, every man in the unit carries at least one magazine that they hand over before an expected fire fight. Barrel and bolt change and receiver attachment is necessary, though. This, though, comes at the price of a longer barrel, heavier mechanisms, and bulkiness, forcing the weapon to be operated with a two man crew and a gas spring to counter recoil. Bipod and tripod fittings are standard. Conventional tactics dictates the GPMG to stay towards the rear of a fire fight to offer long range support, utilizing its exceptionally high rate of fire for suppression. Though Spartans are capable of wielding a weapon on their own, the sheer length prevents it from being used on its own practically.

1500 rounds per minute with 7.62mm, 300 rounds per minute with 12.7mm  
150 linked-round 7.62mm box magazine, but can accept BR magazines  
Longer, easily exchangeable barrels  
Conventional receiver setup  
3-5x scope, IR, night vision, laser sights  
Constant Recoil system, gas spring.  
Form fitting pads  
Bipods/Tripods  
Max effective range: 1000m (20x plasma light arms)

**M700 Heavy Machine Gun (HMG)**

Inspired by the five centuries old General Dynamics XM-312 HMG, the M700 HMG is the heaviest weapon issued to a standard company, requiring a two man crew. Weighing in at 25kg , it is not exactly the most mobile or fastest firing of weapons, it makes up for it with the ability to pour out sustained heavy firepower at long ranges, firing both 50mm grenades at 200 rounds a minute and 12.7mm rounds at 400 rounds per minute; receiver swaps and barrel change is necessary to change caliber. A dual feed system allows for the operators to fit two belts or magazines to the HMG at once on opposing sides, allowing for a longer fire and/or quick switch between specialized ammunition. An onboard laser range finder works in conjunction with airburst transducers standard to all 50mm grenades for quickly sweeping infantry advances, allowing a single HMG crew to stop an entire grunt rush or jackal phalanx. Conventional tactics dictates that a company's 3 HMGs operate on two running 12.7mm and one on 50mm grenades. A notable feature of the HMG is that special water jacketed barrels are available for extended periods of operation in combat, though it's mostly reserved for heavy stationary defense due to the extra weight.

Long, easily exchangeable barrels  
Dual feed receiver setup  
3-5x scope, IR, night vision,  
Laser range finder for airburst  
Constant Recoil system, gas spring.  
Bipods/Tripods  
Optional water jacketed barrels  
Max effective range: 1000m (20x plasma light arms)

**M25 Pile Driver**  
Replacing the aging M19 Jackhammer, the M25 Pile Driver is a fin stabilized 105mm guided rocket. Unlike the previous attempts to make the M19 a guided weapon by integrating an expensive guidance computer on every launcher, the Pile Driver utilizes the soldier's radio, HUD, neural interface, and personal sensors to interface with the rocket; the tube itself is naught but a cheap and expendable piece of aluminum and fiberglass with a trigger and some basic sights for unguided fire. Accepting pre-launch inputs from only confirmed UNSC encryption and frequency from a source no more than half a meter away, the rocket cannot be interfered with via electronic intrusion after it has been fired as it would reject all post-launch commands regardless of source. The anti-back blast system utilizes a salt water countermass, a system pioneered in the early 21st century by the Saab Bofors Dynamics' AT-4 CS, to protect the crew from lethal back blast of the rocket, allowing it to be used in closed quarters where the M19 would be dangerous to operate.

The Pile Driver operates two types of ammunitions. The tandem HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank)/HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) round is capable of both direct attack, which has a very good chance of knocking out a wraith as compared to the M19, and the top attack, which targets the Wraith's thin top armor and is virtually a guaranteed catastrophic kill or at the least a weapons kill from knocking out its mortar. The first HEAT warhead blasts a hole for the second HEDP warhead to destroy the interior.

The second variation is the Thermobaric Explosive warhead (TBX) which has small breaching charge and a high density tip to breach walls. The round carries powered aluminum that mixes with the air and ignited to create a thermobaric explosion powerful enough to clear most structures of any occupants even if they are shielded. In addition, the TBX also scatters a considerable amount of high velocity fragments, allowing it to be used effectively against targets of both a confined and exposed nature and is particularly lethal to even shielded infantry. The combined heat and pressure wave along with the fragments creates an unshielded kill radius of almost 70m. The round can be timed to detonate after punching through a small wall or thin armor/shield. The TBX is also the preferred anti-air and anti-light vehicle ammunition as its large kill radius and shrapnel is particularly lethal against the thin skinned banshees, specters, and ghosts with proximity detonation. Like the tandem round, the TBX round is capable of guided indirect fire to bypass obstructions or defenses for maximum lethality.

The two rounds can be used interchangeably, though to less effect; the tandem HEAT has a smaller kill radius than the TBX if it doesn't achieve a direct hit while the TBX can only strip a wraith's weapons without punching through the thick armor. Considering that the old double tube design was carried over, most operators prefer to have one tube loaded with a Tandem and the other with a TBX. When used together against a structure, a single volley is capable of seriously compromising the structural integrity of most structures; testing has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to level whole buildings. This, however, makes it ideal for taking closed areas and for boarding action. To that end, the Marines have developed a boarding tactic known as "Rolling Thunder": firing first the tandem round to blow doors open and eliminate other barriers before tossing TBX ordinance in to finish any opposition before moving in to secure the area.

A variation of the M25 is the M25SD, or single shot disposable. Basically, the SD is a smaller, fire team based version of the standard launcher. The SD gives the individual fire team real anti-tank and anti-fortification power with only half the weight of the double shot version. While it is technically disposable, the SD can be reloaded or swapped out for a different type of rocket. SDs comes as standard Tandem HEAT/HEDP.

105mm double shot / (single shot disposable)  
Neural interface and command  
Tracking  
Notably cheap and expendable  
Tandem HEAT/HEDP, TBX (powdered aluminum based) warheads  
Weight: 23kg (SD version: 12.5kg)

**M22 11.43mm (.45 cal) x 27mm Personal Defense Weapon (PDW)**

Due to dismal performance of the M7 caseless submachine gun against the covenant, ONI section III designers went back to the drawing board for a new lightweight low recoil secondary weapon for non-combatant servicemen. The result was the M22 PDW, an extremely well balanced weapon that occupies the blurry the lines between carbines and submachine guns. The weapon was oddly shaped in comparison to other weapons in the UNSC inventory; the PDW looked much like a small, boxy pistol made three times larger with the trigger directly behind the chamber. The tubular magazine and all of the weapons mechanism is placed in front of the grip

Utilizing the horizontal recoil dampening system pioneered five centuries before by the TDI Kriss Super V SMG, the M22 is capable of extreme accuracy even when fired one-handed. The weapon utilizes direct recoil transfer via placement of the hammer to transfer most of its force at zero angle to the user and a heavy bolt on a variable-angle track redirects its own recoil against its remaining climb. In addition, the M22 utilizes the 11.43 x 27mm MPHE transducers. The helical magazine, where the rounds are stored in a cylinder and fed in by a water screw-like device, holds 42 rounds and runs horizontally below the barrel cage. A high rate of fire, compactness, and the ability to quickly strip shields as well as kill makes the PDW an exceptionally lethal close quarter weapon.

1200 rounds per second  
Low recoil, ultrasonic transducer AP/HE 9mm rounds.  
Super V recoil dampeners and direct recoil transfer.  
Laser sights  
Dual Wieldable  
42 round helical magazine, conventional magazine and receiver  
Max effective range: 70m (1.4 x plasma light arms range)

**Spartan/Hayabusan Weaponry**

**HMA-AR-1**  
Assault Rifle  
The HMA-AR-1or nicknamed "Scar" is manufactured at the Hayabusa Mars Armory. It is the backbone to the Spartan and Hayabusa troops. It is a gauss accelerated bull pup rifle that requires a direct power link up from the armor systems to power up the charging capacitors. In a sense, the capacitors charge the gauss coils to achieve susbstantial power output to shoot the round out at hypersonic speeds. The weapon comes with receiver and barrel attachments for allowing use of 7.62mm ammo and a twist on 50mm grenade launcher attachment.

12.7mm bullpup rifle  
Barrel inserts and reciever attachment allows for using 7.62mm ammo  
42 round mag  
constant recoil receiver  
7.62 x 63mm Telfon coated Tungsten Nitride tumblers magnums  
7.62 x 63mm white phosphorus coated hydrashock rounds. Short range for effective anti-shields/armor, causes flesh to explode from the impulse and scatters white phosphorus into the victim, burning them from the inside out  
.50 cal DU  
12.7mm W-Ni-Mn  
Tungsten Nitride white phosphorus coated hydrashocks  
50mm grenades  
flash suppressor  
laser sights and cameras  
foam padded stock

**HMA- M2 Shotgun-AGL**  
Nickname "Grenader".  
The M2 Assault Grenade Launcher was designed for close quarters combat and as a support weapon. The M2AGL is desgined after the USAS-12 and AA-12 shotguns, combining it with the SPAS-15 gas/pump action, as well as grenade launcher attachment. The Grenade launcher attachment supports a 50mm x 12 round capacity based on a conventional receiver design.

Conventional receiver design  
Two external snail magazines 42 rounds  
Spas-15 gas/pump action.  
Constant recoil system  
Form fitting curvature foam butt.  
Spherical Buckshot's  
Slugs  
M101 W-Ni-Mn Hydrashock tumbler slugs (Brute Slugs) 50mm x 12 round capacity

**HMA-M1 Assault Grenade Launcher (AGL)**  
Grenade Launcher.  
Nickname "CQP" (close quarters pwnage).

Spas-15 Gas/Pump action  
50mm x 12 round capacity  
Conventional receiver design

**HMA-Sniper Cannon**  
The Sniper cannon is a product of the minds of HavocLegionnaire and his Weapons Consortium. Got questions? He's got answers.

25.4 mm sniper cannon  
Gauss accelerators  
5x-40x Oracle scope w/ Nightvision/ IR/Magnetic Resonance  
Recoil Compensator on gas springs  
Form fitting curvature butt  
Conventional receiver

**HMA-SR97**  
Nickname "Ghillie."  
This Matte Black Sniper Rifle, in comparison to the Sniper Cannon, uses 12.7mm Teflon coated Tungsten nitride with a Boron Nitride tip APFSDS. After firing many shots, thin sabots collect around the sniper. This round has extreme armor piercing qualities in response to the Brutes armor. The Sniper Rifle is slightly bigger and heavier than its older brother the SRS99D-S2 AM. It supports a longer barrel, thermal scope, HUD link, Night Vision and many other features.

12.7mm TCTN with Boron Nitride Tip APFSDS.  
12.7mm x 114mm x 6 round magazine  
8 round magazine.  
Mechanical Recoil Compensator  
Foam Padded stock  
40 inch barrel  
Thermal Scope (2x-8x)  
HUD Link  
Night Vision  
Flash Suppressor

**Arc Blade**

Despite what many would say about the role of the bayonet in an age of automatic and energy weapons, none can deny its psychological value. On multiple occasions, marine bayonet charges were able to imprint the fear of cold steel into the terrified, demoralized, and poorly motivated grunt and jackal conscripts into retreat, though only when the elites had been eliminated. Spartans in particular use this to turn the table on numerically superior forces; with the recent fame of the Master Chief, this effect can only be amplified. But unlike most infantry, melee combat in is not the exception, but the norm for Spartans in CQC because of their pace of engagement can on occasions forbid reloading. The Arc Blade bayonet provides facsimile to covenant plasma blades in such a scenario.

A standard 7 inch chromium steel knife is coated with carbon nanotubes that, when the weapon is activated, carry a powerful electric current on its surface. A low viscosity plasma field insulates the weapon and prevents arcing until something breaches the field to make contact with the blade. Once contact is made, the arc blade replicates the effect of a plasma arc cutter by streaming electricity, coming from the Mjolnir power couplers in the Spartan's hand, onto the contact point and cause instant ionization, melting, and vaporization; the blade itself then cuts through the weaken material with ease.

Against shields, the arcing severely weakens plasma viscosity and destabilizes the containment field, leading to shield failure. Against flesh, the blade also shocks the victim, ensuring that even if the strike is not lethal kinetically, it will kill or at least disable them via electrocution. Against equipment, the arcing augments the impact to effectively fry circuitry. Against heavy armor, its effects will vary depending on the specific heat index and conductivity of the armor itself. Against a plasma blade, the arc blade's own containment field and charge repels the similarly charge plasma blade's containment field and the nanotube coating would protect it from the intense heat at that distance from the actual plasma itself, effectively allowing the arc blade to parry and block the plasma blade.

Fitted onto the SAR, it draws power from interior circuitry that links it to the palm power couplers.  
7 inch blade  
Blocks plasma blades

Vehicles

**The Black Scorpion**

M808C MBT nicknamed the "Black scorpion".

The GM engine has been replaced with a Chrysler engine, which can provide up 2,000 horsepower, permitting speed up to 88.56 KPH, or 55 MPH.

Replaced the Titanium-A battle plating with thermal composite armour type 98M6.

98M6

Fullerite mesh grid heat bleeders that leads directly to the engine's radiator is installed as it would accelerate the cooling process by providing a heat sink and generally increase tensile strength.

As a bonus, the 95M1 is simultaneously far stronger and appreciably lighter than homogeneous titanium-A.

The 90 millimetre rifled canon is now a 120 millimetre smooth bore.

A magnetic accelerator has been installed like the ones on the Gauss Warthogs.

The ammunition is now depleted uranium/titanium alloy APFSDS or tungsten carbide canister shots.

Steel sabots cause a shotgun like effect; do not use around friendlies.

The 7.62mm turret can be replaced with either 30 mil auto-cannons, 50mm grenade machine gun and an accompanying 12.7mm machine gun, a 47mm mortar, or a flamethrower with an optimal range of 40 meters.

The ammunition load out on the 30mm would be a mixture of HEDP high explosive, depleted uranium armour piecing, and white phosphorus incendiary rounds at a ratio of 5:3:2 for the best performance against light vehicles and infantry.

**M808D King Scorpion Tank Destroyer**

In the past, the concept of a tank destroyer would be widely ridiculed, and rightfully so as the tank destroyer is a very specialized weapon that rarely finds its intended opponents and is often outmatched by the opponents that it actually encounters. The nature of the current war, however, has altered this view. A tank destroyer, by definition, revolves around an extremely powerful field gun that can penetrate the armor of any foreseeable opponent. With the deployment of the Scarab walker by the Covenant, our armored forces can no longer hold a definitive advantage against covenant armor. Simulations and simple logic have predicted that a sufficient number of high velocity kinetic penetrators can bring the walker down. However, the current standard gun calibers, 120mm and 155mm, requires dozens of hits to penetrate the scarab's armor. Any further attempts to field larger field guns would severely hamper ammunition capacities of magazines and would wear out the guns far faster. The answer to this dilemma is to move beyond convention chemical guns and into electromagnetic acceleration.

Under orders from project director Col. George Yeung, Field Weapons Division constructed a 90mm 27 megajoule coil gun based on the design of the Gauss warthog's gun. Though the bore is small compared to contemporaries, the gun packs more than double the power of a 120mm APFSDS round. Because the ammunition consists of only the slug and no longer carry the powder charges, the magazine capacity has increased to 100 rounds, more than doubling the loadout. This gives the tank destroyer the advantage in almost any vehicle battle and one King Scorpion alone packs the necessary loadout to destroy multiple scarabs if it is at optimal range. Because there is no exploding gases, the cannon is also far quieter, not much louder than the shots from the old S2 sniper rifles. All other aspects of the King Scorpion is carried over from the Black Scorpion.

However, there is a price to be paid for these improvements. Because of the massive power requirements, the current generation of fuel cell engines cannot fully power all the vehicle's systems at once; one must select which system or systems has to either shut down or to run below optimal power levels. Also, firing rate is decreased depending on how many systems can be shut down to power the gun. This has been partially remedied by selective firing modes: standard fire that offers a slightly more powerful charge than one would receive from a chemical fired 120mm cannon and the full charge that delivers all 27 megajoules. Also, not all conventional HE shells can be fired from the gun due to its magnetic propulsion that might not impart the necessary velocities to non-ferromagnetic shells, severely limiting its effectiveness against infantry though 90mm canister shots still can be used. Current plans are to embed the King Scorpions on the battalion level as armor support instead of independent units. But because of all these potential problems, Field Weapons Division has not authorized full production of the King Scorpion and has only produced a fleet of 30 Tank Destroyers for field trials with the 2nd armor division. Further production will pend on field results.

**M12TC Warthog**

More commonly known as the troop carrier, this version of the warthog had its turret removed in exchanged for a welded on extra passenger seating area in the back. It can carry up to eight Marines in the back (four Spartans). It carries an extra two centimetres of titanium-A, reinforcing the Warthogs joints, and allowing it to carry the extra passengers. The passenger area is surrounded by criss-crossing metal beams providing limited cover to incoming fire. The GM engine has been replaced with a Chrysler, providing the needed horsepower to achieve the same speeds as it's brothers. It is designed to be used for providing a quick and easy method of transporting a small amount of troops to areas that need reinforcements, without the commitment of the cannons and heavy armour the Leopard APC's use.

**M3 Leopard Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV)**

Acknowledging the Marine Cops' need for an armored vehicle that's more mobile than an MBT but not as an easy target and as fuel hungry as a pelican while more heavily armed and durable than a simple warthog, ONI designers created the Leopard class Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Unlike the previous attempts to create an APC derivative of the Warthog, the Leopard is meant to stay close with its infantry after dismount and support them with heavy firepower and mobile cover. Like the old Soviet BMP, it was readily amphibious and can traverse just about any terrain without difficulty. And like the legendary M2 Bradley and the Stryker, it was armed heavily armored, has enough firepower to take on tanks if it came to it, was multi-adaptable, and can coordinate its infantry during operations. Its chromium steel tracks are plated with a thick layer of tungsten nitride, lessening road wearing.

The Leopard also uses the Titanium B/C ARC layer armor used on the Black Scorpion, though sporting less than half the armor thickness at 51mm for the sake of weight, space, and speed. To compensate, the entire vehicle is surrounded with an electrostatic slat armor – which basically amounts to a simple charged grill - that can deflect even a Shade turret's fire from up to 50m away; though this can only be used when friendly infantry isn't nearby. The vehicle remains vulnerable to heavy plasma bolts like the wraith mortar, though. Since the grills are independent of each side, the electrostatic defense system can be applied directionally to further protect dismounted marines. Additional layers of armor plates can be mounted on for urban combat.

Offensively, the standard Leopard sports a 30mm autocannon main turret with 200 rounds of standard airburst He/shrapnel and 100 other specialized round depending on the mission at hand, two TOW-12 AT missile launchers, and a manual swivel mount that can accommodate either a HMG or GPMG depending on the situation at hand. Fixed grenade launchers can completely obscure the Leopard's area of operation with smoke grenade volleys. To keep up with the Black Scorpion, the leopard can run at a maximum speed of 92 KpH and has an armored skirt to protect its vulnerable tracks.

The Leopard was made with adaptability in mind, allowing for many variations. Standard IFVs can support an entire 12 men squad. Medical versions are fully equipped to stabilize most injuries and can accommodate up to four patients. Mortar IFVs are have open tops and armed with both 81mm mortars and the far more powerful and longer ranged 120mm mortar and three hundred rounds, allowing for both prolonged infantry support and shoot-and-scoot. AA IFVs can be armed with twenty Argent VII missiles, six TBX pile drivers, and replaces the 30mm cannon with a 50mm auto-cannon with 350 airburst rounds. Command IFVs operates as a company's mobile command and control, filled with communications equipment to allow for rapid coordination and assault.

Multi-adaptable: Assault, Medical, AAA, Mortar, & Command.

30mm Cannon, Manual Swivel, 2x TOW-12,

2 in armor, electrostatic slat armor.

92 KpH, Amphibious, Pelican transportable.

Arterilly

**M355 Ballista Multi-Launched Rocket System.**

Essentially a revival of the former American Army's M270 MLRS, the Ballista provides a critical service for the UNMC: massed long range firepower. Each of its many rockets is capable of firing from at least 120 km (75 miles) away from the target with extreme precision; certain rockets are capable of ranges up to 350km (218.5 miles). It is superior to cannon artillery in that its longer ranged, quicker to fire, carries bigger load out, and more mobile; all this comes at the cost of more expensive ammunition, shorter periods of fire making it unsustainable in defensive fire, and being quite noticeable with its rocket trails.

The Ballista is capable of firing a variety of solid fuel rocket ammunitions in volleys of twelve, each weighing up to 350kg. A single TBX warhead is capable of level multiple city blocks at once; a volley can level an entire city section. A volley of cluster bombs can cover an entire square kilometer with submunitions and wipe out an entire regiment in maneuver. The SADARM volley can kill an entire mechanized brigade. Precision rockets can deliver a single 1350kg ONC warhead within accuracy of a single square meter. VX-7 volleys can effectively neutralize an entire army. Long range stealth rockets can deliver a volley of 100 kiloton nukes for primarily against covenant capital ships, though other applications are clearly present. Special variations of the launcher can fire two Longbow Archer Missiles, each with a 2000kg payload.

**M200 Self-Propelled Howitzer **

Taking many design features from the former German Bundeswehr Heer Panzerhaubitze 2000, the SPH is meant for rapid support of armored assaults. Its massive 155mm howitzer is capable of firing a 70kg shell at over 35 km and 70km with rocket assisted shells. The vehicle stores eighty shells in its armored compartment with all steps of the firing process being automated; though, like all automated systems in the UNSC, it can be manually operated. The crew is sequestered with the SPH's many sensors in a separate armored compartment. Following its lineage, the SPH is capable of calibrating its gun to fire nine shots with different arcs in quick succession to have them all land on a single target at the same time. To assist the Scorpions in armor engagements, the SPH hides two lethal edges: the 155mm DU APFSDS kinetic penatrator round that can kill a wraith at up to fifteen kilometers away and SADARM munitions. The vehicle is mounted with the same turbine engine of the Black Scorpion to keep up during an attack. For defense, the SPH is has 25mm of Titanium-B armor and mounted with a GPMG and fixed smoke grenade launchers, but like all mobile artilleries its best defense is range and mobility.


	3. Prologue

**A/N: Hey everybody and welcome to PH:II! There are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to HavocLegionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Enjoy!**

**Project: Hayabusa II**

**Prologue.**

**1420 Hours, July 27, 2539(Military Calendar) \ Aboard  
UNSC**_**Point of No Return, **_**Location Classified  
(17 years after Alpha Company Indoctrination)**

Colonel Ackerson nervously walked onto the ramp that led to the service elevator, which led down to the one place he had been more times in the past decade then he had in his whole life.

So why did this time feel so different?

Humanities fate rested on his shoulders this time, that's why.

He wasn't here, this time, to debrief the Vice and Rear Admirals on the Spartan-III program, no, not this time. Not even the Spartans-III's will do what this next batch can do.

He knew everything now. Knew everything that was going to go down in the future; how was he suppose to treat that kind of knowledge?

And why did _he _choose Ackerson? Why not Lord Hood or some other member of the Brass on HIGHCOM?

Sweat poured down his face as the elevator made its final descent, gravity settled into his stomach and he stepped off.

In front him, were the white conclave walls of _Odin's Eye. _

The Marine posting guard didn't even check his credentials; they let him pass through and then locked the door behind him.

"Parangosky, Rich" He nodded to both of them.

The aging Admiral looked more than annoyed, and the Rear Admirals eyes never met Ackerson, that was a bad sign.

"Let's cut the bullshit," Parangosky started coldly, "It's been only 2 years since Operation: PROMETHEUS, and we decided to not meet again for quite some time, now what in hells name made you call us down here through back channels James?"

"Yeah I'd like to know too" Rich shot coldly. His eyes were glazed, but still cold.

Ackerson exhaled slowly, and chose his words carefully. "Things... came up."

"Well no shit! Cut the crap Ackerson and spill it." Parangosky spat.

"As of 2 days ago, new information about the war came up... it's not good."

**0815 Hours, September 25 2007 (Military Calendar)  
Education Facility # 104, Vancouver, Canada.  
Earth.**

"Adam, wake up, we're here." A soft voice echoed from the front of the car and into the ears of a sixteen year old boy sitting in the back. Adam slowly opened his heavy eyes and took in his surroundings. Static washed over him as a headache abruptly made its presence in the back of his mind. It pounded into the back of his retinas as fires burned through the stone walls of his school. Jackals and Brutes threw lifeless bodies into the flames.

"Adam! Wake up!" The soft voice instantly changed into an annoyance and Adam cleared his head of the image. The scenery before his eyes changed at once to the rain drenched campus of his high school.

"Sorry, headache." He apologized.

"Another?" the ghostly image of a female in the driver's seat worriedly asked.

"Yeah, worse this time."

"Remember, if it gets worse, just call me and I'll take you to a doctor."

"Ok, bye mom."

"Bye."

Adam hopped out of the SUV and placed the hood of his sweat top over his head to stop the rain from drenching his hair. He looked over the stitched letters that were embedded into the jacket.

_H-A-L-O._

Possibly the best video game ever made, and the third instalment to the series came out at midnight the night before. His life was revolved around the game, some might say he's a zealot fanatic, but he just had a passion for what could be, so true. Bungie just did, a fantastic job, along with Eric Nylund and his books, just captivated many.

He cleared his mind and pushed open the doors to the cafeteria. Static again washed over him and the headache returned in full force. Brutes in heavy armour surrounded the cafeteria and sprayed fire into a set of double doors at the far end of the room. One saw him, and charged.

"Adam, are you ok?"

The image vanished before his eyes and he realized that he was on one knee with his head lowered to the ground. Adam looked up into his friends concerned eyes.

"Yeah, just a headache." She obviously wasn't satisfied with the answer, but she walked with him up the stairs and to his locker.

They got to the third floor and yet another headache came over him, and Adam doubled over in pain. A Grunt, was standing at the end of the hallway, staring at Adam, until it screeched and ran away.

A few minutes passed and in a blur he was sitting at his desk, listening to his math teacher explain the daily work load. For the first time in a very long time, he felt frightened, and alone. He looked around the room, and panicked. Something was going on, his breathing increased, sweat poured down his face, his head throbbed as his bones began to grow sore.

"Adam, are you-?" The math teachers voice was cut off by the slight crack of the window, not to mention the gaping whole in his head.

Tears of realization came across Adam, as his bones began to break.

In a choked voice he yelled, "Get down..."

Plasma bolts and super heated spikes shattered the glass in a vacuum fashion. No noise was made to Adams' ears as he squirmed in pain from the burning, breaking, sweating and nauseating feeling. Something was taking over, and he cried out for the one person that all soldiers cry out for when faced with their own fate.

"Mom-"

_Name: Sergeant Adam-484_

_Service tag: __**CLASSIFIED**_

_Call sign: Free-lancer_

_Squad: Death Squad_

_Report: Sniper at heart, but team leader in everyone else's eyes. Capable of inspiring and leading many. Watch out for this kid though, takes all deaths to heart, and makes up for it in pure revenge._

_Congratulations soldier, welcome to the ranks of the Hayabusa. Sergeant, you will be trained in the art of assassination: speed, stealth, and ultimately, the annihilation of your enemy with any means necessary. Welcome to Death squad._

**Well as you can see there are similarities between the two fanfictions. But I hope this has hooked you into reading more. The next chapter will answer all your questions. Till next time.**

**-fL92.**


	4. Part One: Level One

**A/N: Hey everybody welcome to the first chapter. There are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to HavocLegionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Enjoy!**

**Part One**

**Level One**

**Eight Hundred Strong**

**0517 Hours, November 27, 2552 (Military Calendar)\**

**UNSC Super Carrier, **_**Double Edged Sword**_

**En route to Earth.**

Adam's bed cracked as he sat up with lightning quickness and combat knife in hand.

_A dream, just a dream._

Sweat poured down his forehead and into his eyes as he looked around. The pitch black room added to his post-nightmare fear. His eyes adjusted and he saw all one hundred of the Hayabusans of Hell Company; who were ready to be deployed to Earth.

The dream he had; it was so real. It's as if he was transported to another dimension and lived another life. He watched as his enemies killed those he didn't know and he could do nothing but watch. It made him feel helpless and afraid. The life that his nightmares were shedding light upon was not the life he would want, he was brought up to serve, fight, and die for Earth and all of her colonies against the Covenant.

When earth was finally located by the covenant and the alien fleets had invaded, the Hayabusans were recalled from their various missions to re-group and head to earth.

The Hayabusans were the new breed of Spartans under Colonel Ackerson and Lieutenant Colonel George Yeung. They were the strongest, and most numerous active Spartans in history. Eight hundred were trained and after 200 flawless missions no casualties had been reported. The Good Lt. Colonel said and had continually praised the Spartans for their success; claiming them to be the "best Spartans ever produced".

They were trained on a secret planet from the earliest ages and divided into eight training companies: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, Golf, and Hell. Each company was assigned 100 Spartan trainees, a training Sergeant, and his personally selected drill instructors. Once training was completed, each squad was assigned either on its own or on a joint operation with another squad to take out Covenant Priority targets.

They were also equipped with the latest armour and weapons that Lt. Colonel Yeung could think of ; they would finally be put to use in real combat situations.

Thinking of all this made Adam feel immensely proud of himself and the rest of his Spartan brethren. The fear and doubt brought on by his nightmare quickly faded away as it was overcome with his pride and confidence. He silently stepped out of the bed and made his way out of the dead quiet storage room, which was renovated for Hell Company's sleeping and personal quarters. This was the second night they used it; for a week they had to stay in Cryo Sleep. Adam never wanted to go in the cold, cramped things again, the nutrients were disgusting and it felt like you were giving your life into the hands of the Captain of the ship.

The Sergeant wasn't the only one who complained about this. It seemed as if every Hayabusan in Hell Company complained about it. Adam put his doubts aside and continued down the length of the brightly lit corridor, on his way to a washroom.

If he could find one, of course.

"Excuse me, can you point me to the washrooms?" Adam asked politely to the stout brunette women who seemed to be the only other person in the ship awake.

"Just around that corner," She replied. She wore a tight fitting navy jumpsuit; with a patch on her shoulder, "Birds into hell, 34th Naval Squadron".

Adam followed her directions and finally made it to the washroom. When he entered the large circular room; he noticed several shower stalls, medicine cabinets, and mirrors. While he was looking around his light green eyes caught his reflection in the mirror. His reflection stared back at him, full of life and strong. He was roughly two meters tall, slightly tanned body and weighed roughly 125 kilograms of hardened muscle and bone. His light brown hair was lined with a streak of silver, something that was a gift by the augmentations. He had a training instructor once say to him, "You are the toughest looking group of seven year olds I have ever seen."

It was true. Each of the Hayabusans' genes had been modified in a way that would enhance their growth speed. At the age of nine months, they had the bodies and mental capacity of a three year old. Over time the growth speed was reduced naturally so they wouldn't die after a month. On Graduation Day, when they turned 16, they were really only seven years old. They received their augmentations and were placed in real, live fire missions. At 19, their genes were effectively "reversed" so that they could live and fight longer. In a way, his age was literally catching up with him.

He turned on the dusty taps and splashed cold-water on his face. The Hayabusan let the cold-water beads drip off his face and allowed him to relish the moment because an unshakable feeling told him he wouldn't be able to do it again. He quickly turned the taps off and exited the empty bathroom, going back to his sleeping quarters.

He silently opened the door and quickly turned around to close it so he wouldn't wake anyone up. He didn't even notice that the lights had been turned on.

There was a joke made by the Senior Personnel that when one member of Hell Company was awake the others would wake up as if by some mind connection. Most of the Spartans were awake and moving gear and weapons around the room while some of them still slept soundly.

That's when things got ironic about Hell Company. Most of the time you couldn't wake them up when they wanted their sleep, but when one or a few of them woke up, the rest would snap on like a switch and wake up. Although it was the nightmares they had that seemed to be the true culprit that was stealing their sleep. The Doctors waved them as "normal mind functions", but each Spartan knew they were more than just "normal functions". The whole Spartan battalion talked to each other about the realism of the dreams, it felt like they were there living the lives of the other people.

Adam made his way further into the now brightly lit and active room and towards his bed. There he found most of his squad still asleep.

"Well this is a surprise..." The Sergeant sighed.

Chris, one of the eldest of the Spartans in Death Squad rolled over in his bed and started groaning. He had brown hair, green eyes, was a little under two and half meters tall, and roughly 130 kilos. Like all the Hayabusans, he was lined with muscles and scars all over his body. Chris was their man for rapid insertions and extreme close quarters combat. The man liked to live up to his call sign of "Insane" by either rushing the front lines or being the first one to clear out a room by killing all the occupants with his fists.

There was also the other Chris, but the squad naturally adapted to calling him by his call sign, which was "Wardy". He was the squad's specialist with the sniper rifle and other long-range weapons. Other squad members had commented that he didn't look much like a Sniper. Wardy had blonde hair, pale skin and light blue eyes. He weighed in at 140 kilos and was the tallest Hayabusan in Hell Company at over two and a half meters. He sat up on his top bunk and threw a small paper ball at Chris.

"Dude, c'mon," Chris moaned

"Wake up, sleepy head," Wardy mocked.

The bunk bed beside the two Chris's was empty. "Where are Amanda and Aaron?" Adam asked while he unpacked his Scar Assault rifle from the duffel bag underneath his bottom bunk.

"The love birds? They ran off somewhere, saying something about the new shotguns." Nick, the squads Heavy Weapons specialist answered from the top bunk above Adam. He had his dark brown hair shaven almost all off, and his fierce green eyes were still waking up from the good night's rest. Nick was the shortest of them at just under two meters tall, and weighed 115 kilos. He made up for it in sheer tenacity, passion, and determination. Ever since Basic Training he had a peculiar interest in heavy weapons such as the Pile Driver and Spartan Laser. The trainers noticed it right away too, and put him in Death Squad because they were lacking a weapons nut at the time.

"Figures; she's dragging him a long like a puppy on a leash. Thank God command doesn't know about two teenage Spartan love birds," Chris said groggily as he got out from bed. "I'm going to bathroom to wake up, I'll be back in 20."

"I'll go too," Wardy said. The two of them ran off to the door and met up with some other Hayabusans.

"Hey Sarge, I got a question to ask you," Nick requested while he started taking apart his GPMG.

"Ask away."

"Are you nervous? This mission isn't like anything else. We're not deployed to some low covenant priority targets. This is big, this _Earth _we're talking about, our last stand. If we screw up..."

That's where Adam had to stop him, "We're Spartans; we will fight and most likely die in protection of Earth. So in a way, yes, I am nervous. But don't worry, just remember your training, and that your squad is always there with you; we're family." As Sergeant of the Squad, it was Adam's responsibility and duty to make sure that his squad was in a positive attitude and focused.

It was a rule in his squad that rank does not mean one-mind controls the squad. Everyone in his squad was a leader and could issue orders if it was for the betterment of the squad, never for personal agendas.

"I understand. I guess it's just the HEV's I'm not looking forward to." Nick hated the things. In a training exercise the HEV's titanium skin peeled off to fast too soon and he almost cooked to death while dropping through the atmosphere. Nick blacked out as soon as he hit ground, and didn't wake up for six hours. He held a grudge against them ever since.

"Yeah, those things are insane," Adam commented and sat on his bunk with his new assault rifle. The new weapons had been shipped from the secret Hayabusan armoury on Mars, which was run by Lt. Colonel Yeung. The Hayabusans had wondered where the Lt. Colonel had been for the past eight or nine months, and when the weapons arrived; they figured he must've been cooking up the new toys for the Spartans. If there was one thing the Good Colonel knew about the Spartans was that they loved big guns.

"Hey guys what are you doing?" Amanda asked as she walked with Aaron towards the two Deaths.

"Just cleaning out the new gear; where were you two?" Nick asked.

"Went to the armoury and picked up these," Aaron said and threw a large backpack onto the ground. "It's the new Shotguns and some other weapons. It's a bit much if you ask me; shotgun and grenade launchers mix."

"Not for me!" Amanda said as she used her foot to kick the shotgun up from the ground to her hands. Amanda was the squad's shotgun specialist and point man. She also toke the role of grenadier and was often paired up with Chris if the squad needed a building cleared. She was two meters tall and weighed roughly the same as Adam. Her dark brown hair was cut to the regulation length, and her sharp hazel eyes were relaxed in delight.

"Show off..." Adam said.

"You're just jealous," Aaron said. Aaron was the squad's demolitions specialist and shares the title of Heavy Weapons nut with Nick. He was definitely the strongest of the Spartans, weighing in at 145 kilograms and just over two and a half meters tall. He had shaven brown hair and a natural light red goatee. His dark green eyes were concentrated in thought.

Aaron still holds the company record for the demolitions speed run. The exercise was that you had to "tag" 5 tanks with a sensor that would send out a signal to the tank, replicating the effect if C4 had been detonated on it. If the tank got a lock on you, then you'd "die." The DI's in tank didn't even know where he had come from; the exercise was finished in 20 seconds.

Nick snorted, "Doesn't take much to use a shotgun; walk up to the enemy, and point the barrel at its stomach. You don't even have to aim."

Amanda laughed, "Same with a Rocket launcher."

Each of them had a good laugh and then Wardy and Chris came back from the washroom, looking refreshed and focused.

"Well what do you guys want to do?" Amanda changed the subject.

"We have two hours; I want everyone prepped and ready in 90 minutes," Adam ordered

"Mhmm chow time," Chris exclaimed.

**A/N: Level One of PH:II for you guys. I'd like to thank my editor for being there with me through the long and boring process of editing. I leave you with a quote from him:**

"**To let you know how slow it is going, lets just say I'm pretty sure he wrote it in a shorter amount of time that we have spent editing it. This is probably due to our horribly timed schedules. "-Pat.**

**Review!**


	5. Part One: Level Two

**A/N: Hey everybody welcome to the second chapter. There are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to HavocLegionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Enjoy!**

**Part One**

**Level Two**

**Kill, Switch, Engage. Repeat.**

**0730 Hours, November 27, 2552 (Military Calendar)\  
Hanger Bay aboard UNSC Super Carrier **_**Double Edged Sword**_  
**Passing over Earth**

"C'mon guys let's go! Get into the HEVs!" Adam yelled at his squad.

Each of the Hayabusans of Death Squad double timed it to their designated Human Entry Vehicles. Adam strapped his Scar, Arc Blade, and his Spartan Laser to his back, and attached his duel M22 PDWs to his thighs before he stepped into his HEV. Each of the 800 Hayabusans were given the new MJOLNIR Mark VII Rogue armour, which had been modified and improved a tremendous amount. The titanium door shut and locked Adam inside. Each of the monitors in the Human Entry Vehicle winked to life as the NAV computer received it's coordinates from the ships AI.

"Every check in." Adam said over the com.

"Death-two reporting in." Wardy said.

"Death-three, prepped and ready sir." Chris said.

"Death-four, reporting in." Aaron replied.

"Death-five, I'm getting anxious sir." Amanda complained.

"Death-six, and I'm getting nervous. This thing better not bail out on me again." Nick exclaimed.

"Don't worry Nick, you'll be fine." Chris comforted.

"All Hayabusans, this is _Double Edged Sword_'s A.I. Eisenhower. Each of your HEV's has been sent the coordinates and each of your objectives has been uploaded to your squad leaders HUD. Good luck boys and girls, it was a pleasure serving with you all."

The COM link snapped off with what sounded like waves crashing on a beach. A monitor in Adam's HEV turned black, and then a countdown appeared in bold red numbers.

_00:30_

Adam made sure he was strapped in and his weapons were secure.

_00:20_

He did a double check over his gear and made his squad report in one more time.

_This mission isn't like anything else. We're not deployed to some low priority covenant targets. This is big, this Earth we're talking about, our last stand. _Nicks word rang out in Adam's mind. He was right, and he was damned sure that he was going to do everything in his power to make sure humanity lives on.

_0:05. Here goes nothing._

The HEV dropped with a loud clank and Adam's stomach felt as it went into his chest.

"_Wahoo." _Aarons voice yelped over the COM.

"Someone's having fun." Nick muttered.

"How you holding up there, Nick?" Wardy asked.

"Fine, for now." Nick thoughtfully replied.

"Alright Spartans cut the chatter, we're going through that atmosphere in five." Adam commanded.

The acknowledge lights on his HUD light up blue and comfort ran through his system. As the HEV continued its decent Adam checked his mission objectives.

Death squad was assigned the task to provide support to the 101st ODST Battalions Alpha Company. They were pinned down by a Covenant battalion along with armour support. Marine support was on the way, but they wouldn't be there in time. The HEV's would land right behind the armour divisions lines. From there Adam planned that Amanda, Nick, and Chris would go after the armour division, and commandeer some heavy armament. Aaron, Wardy and himself would cut through the first company from the rear, and link up with Aaron's commandeered tanks, order the ODSTs to advance, and from there they would crush the last two companies.

Adam had full confidence in all of his squad mates and expected each one to do their duty. He forwarded his orders to the squad and acknowledge lights came from each one of them, Nick's was delayed.

"Nick, status update." Adam ordered.

There was a slight crack in the COM "Fine sir, all systems show green."

"Check and then recheck."

There was another delay, "Yes sir." The Com paused for several moments, and static erupted throughout the channel, "Sir- omthings wrong wit- this is s- typical, active- emergency trans- now."

Adam opened a squad wide frequency, but only received static. He looked at a monitor in the HEV.

_3:43 _till they hit ground.

Adam re-opened the channel "Squad, if you can hear me, re-group on my position. Over."

None of the acknowledge lights winked on.

Spartans were never trained to swear, but in this case Adam let loose a small expletive which described the situation perfectly.

"Shit..."

The HEV hit ground, and Adam kicked the door open with all his might. He un-slung his Scar and flipped the safety off in one swift movement. The smoke and dust coming from the HEV's hard landing shrouded Adam and lowered his visibility to a minimum. He switched to his thermals and aimed down the sights. Over 200 contacts appeared, coming out as one big blob of heat on the thermal imaging. Adam checked the range, _1,537 meters_.

It was the armour division, about 1.5 kilometres away. He checked the mission clock _00:05._

The Sergeant activated his acknowledge light and blinked it twice, ordering the squad to regroup. Four black armoured figures emerged from the dust and surrounded Adam.

"Deaths, where's six?" Adam asked.

"He was experiencing COM difficulties on the way down, something must've happened to his HEV when we were descending." Wardy explained.

"We all heard him over the COM. His emergency transponder should be…wait, I got a signal." Amanda paused.

"Same; he's 2 clicks east of us." Chris said.

"Ok, new orders, Chris and Amanda, get over to his position and see what's going on. Then proceed with taking out that armour division. The rest of us will take out one of the companies and regroup with the ODSTs. We don't know how long they'll be able to hold them off, so hurry up. Lock and load." Adam ordered. In truth, he was worried about what had happened to Nick. Adam pushed the thought aside.

A mixture of replies came across the com and Adam's shortened squad made their way across the sands. The sun reflected off and was absorbed by their shining black plates. Each of their temperature regulators in the suits activated and cooled them down to a comfortable 17 degrees Celsius when it was 40 degrees outside. The three Spartans jogged at 40kph and barely made a sound as their boots crunched the sand in their wake.

Adam raised his fist, ordering the pair behind him to stop. The sand kicked up around them as they made their sudden stop to check their distance: roughly a hundred meters away from the first company. All they had to do was jump down the cliff they were currently on top of. Adam signaled Aaron and Wardy to join him, and together the three of them crawled to the edge of the cliff.

There were roughly 200 Covenant soldiers, made up mostly of Grunts, Jackals, and Drones. There were multiple Brute Commanders and Wardy spotted two Hunter pairs. They were all pouring fire into the building parallel to them which housed the Helljumpers.

"Ok, three, five, and six will be here shortly and will link up with us and the armour. Aaron you want to do the honours?" Adam asked as he handed him his Spartan Laser.

"I'd love to," He replied. He took the Laser and took a knee. The Heavy weapon charged and in three seconds it unleashed a concentrated blast of pure energy. The red beam cut through two hunters and several grunts.

With most of the Covenant forces still either confused or not knowing what was happening, there was initially little resistance. Adam put his Scar to the test by unleashing the .50 cal depleted uranium on everything he could see. The deep penetrating bullets made holes and tore limbs off. The Brutes who were watching their comrades being annihilated went into a shock. Adam used the momentary distraction and planted a bullet into each one of the apes furry heads.

A trio of grunts managed to pull themselves together and started throwing grenades, Adam, now entering what was known as "Spartan Time", dove right, rolled up to his feet, and activated his Arc Blade. He swiped the blade and slit their throats once, and were electrocuted once the blade made contact with their skin, which was now steaming from the high voltage.

Fear and destruction was in the air, and Adam breathed it in.

Four Brutes saw the massacre of the three grunts and the ugly fashion they were decimated in. They charged with their Spike rifles flaring; and Adam had just looked down the sights when one by one the top halves of their bodies were torn off by Wardy's Sniper Cannon.

His best friend was always there for him.

"One, tangos behind you." Wardy spoke over the COM.

Adam quickly turned around and prepared his Arc blade, but Aaron was already there, mercilessly killing them with his Plasma Bladed gauntlets.

"More tangos coming from the north east." Wardy said. Adam spotted him changing positions.

"Just hold for a few more minutes, Three will be here any minute now." Aaron replied.

Adam switched to his grenade launcher and fired thermobaric grenades into enemy clusters. The grenade unleashed a hellish explosion that sucked in air, and pushed it out like a mini nuclear explosion. Bodies were blown to bits, and gore was splattered along the battle field.

Not much could faze a Spartan, even combat hardened ones like the ones of Death Squad, but even _that _was something that Adam considered to be...grotesque. He quickly pushed the squeamish feeling aside and continued on using the grenades.

"Two: abandon your position and regroup on me; you too four. " Acknowledge lights winked blue, and Adam took knee, laying fire on any foe who dared to cross their path.

Aaron was first, and he stood just a meter to Adam's left, also laying down fire on the Brutes who managed to pull some of their troops away from the main battle and onto the new threat behind them.

Two joined them shortly and said, "Where's Chris?"

"They're here." Adam replied.

"How do you know?" Aaron said as he put a three round burst into a brute that got to close.

Adam simply nodded to the left and slowly three purple silhouettes broke through the heat and reverberated throughout the ground.

"Three, we're marking our local with green smoke." Adam spoke over the com and nodded to Wardy, who in turn took a can of smoke from his ammo belt and pulled the pin.

"Thermals?" Aaron questioned.

"Well everything in the desert is hot..." Wardy replied.

"Wait for Chris's signal." Adam commanded.

"Hey Sarge, you miss us?" Nick cheerfully said over the com.

"What happened?"

"Ah the stupid door got jammed and wouldn't open. You know the safety thing that if it detects contacts outside of it, it'll lock down and protect the passenger. I don't think it knew there was a Spartan on board."

"What about when we were going through the atmosphere?"

"Oh, I don't know. That's military grade equipment for ya."

"I wouldn't worry about it, One; let's just mop up these brutes before they call in reinforcements." Amanda suggested over the COM.

"I agree; tanks, fan out and activate your FOF tags to let the ODSTs we're friendlies. Two and Four, fan out, attack positions."

His orders were acknowledged and the Spartans fanned out. The Hayabusans, like their predecessors the Spartan-IIs, were just as deadly on their own as they were in a squad. The squad's name, "Death" was given to them for their ability to cause chaos, fear, and total destruction. In situations like this, they would almost always split up and inflict the most damage to the enemy, whether or not they had numerical superiority.

Death Squad learned a long time ago that numbers never mattered.

Adam scanned the enemy forces, most had advanced forward to try and press the ODSTs into retreating. Death-Two was on the right side cutting into the forces with his Plasma Bladed gauntlets, and Death-Four was on the left, the two were attempting to cut wide into the forces and then link up together for one push into the middle. Several times they had to stop to find cover so their shields could recharge, or abandon their position for a new one. Many of the soldiers had begun focusing on the Spartans as the new threat.

The Sergeant joined them by rushing into the middle. He took his Scar and changed his magazine from the .50 calibre depleted uranium rounds to his 7.62mm white phosphorus coated hydrashock rounds. He inserted his sleeve and receiver attachment precisely in a second; a technique only mastered after hours of practice. The rounds were prefect for the armoured Brutes; the nature of the hydrashock rounds caused flesh to explode with impact, and now that White Phosphorus had been coated, the unbearable burning properties would be released into the Brutes body, causing them to burn from the inside out.

Adam spotted his first Brute; its blood stained Gold armour shone in the African Sun. He let his HUD do the work of aiming, and pulled the trigger. A full automatic spray of hot lead penetrated the armour of the brute and brought unbearable pain to it. In a matter of milliseconds its lifeless body dropped to the ground with a _thud. _

The Spartan continued to fire until his Rifle had run out. He didn't have time to reload so he strapped the gun to his back and un-holstered his dual PDWs The M22s made short work of the mixed infantry that was attacking him, but soon he would have to reload again, and more Brutes were bound to show up.

"Three! I need suppressing fire over here!" the Sergeant said over the COM, and marked a position 50 meters in front of him on his HUD. The company had to fully realize what was going on now. Or, what was left of the company.

A big blob of blue plasma arched over Adam's head and landed 50 meters in front of him. Two more in rapid succession followed which gave the Sergeant time to reload both guns. He pulled out his Scar and started sprinting to the five story building. He scanned the area and saw that Aaron and Wardy were doing the same.

It was only 100 Meters away when a huge explosion ripped through the air. Three's tank was reduced to nothing but shrapnel and chunks of debris. Adam quickly pinged Chris with his acknowledge light, requesting a status update.

The light remained dark and Adam started worrying. He stopped dead in his tracks and back tracked another 50 meters to get to Chris's tank. He arrived but there was no sign of a body or Chris. The wind kicked up and blew sand into the face plate, and even though the temperature regulator was working fine, Adam felt it get a lot hotter in his suit.

Something in the augmentations caused the Hayabusans to lose control of their minds and let the animal side of their brain take over. Throughout training they were taught to suppress this feeling and use their logic and reasoning to pull themselves through it.

The thought of losing one of his best friends did not sit well in the Sergeants stomach. Blood rushed throughout his body at an inhuman pace as his heart started beating faster, and faster. The blood pooled into his eyes and his human mind receded from known existence as the animal inside of him bared its teeth, preparing for its next meal.

He strapped his Scar to his back and drew out his plasma bladed gauntlets, and he ran. He sprinted as fast as he could and towards the nearest enemy he could find. He ran past Amanda's tank, he heard her voice but it came out in words he could not understand. There was only one thing on his mind; only one thing that it would comprehend.

Blood.

He leaped off of a boulder sticking out of the ground and landed on top of a Brute. The Plasma blades seared deep into its flesh and killed it instantly. Adam stepped on its neck as he found his next target: a brute major, which held its attention towards the building. With no discretion, beauty, or style, Adam crudely went behind it, and with one long swipe of his arm, he removed the head from its shoulders.

_Murder _and_ vengeance _ran through his head with an unending throb. It pounded his skull into fury and a state of uncontrolled hate. Three more swipes and more Brutes were down on the ground. Four came at him at once and with graceful, flowing movements he killed all of them. One engaged him from the left and swiped down with its spike rifle, the Hayabusan side stepped to the right, spun on his foot and wind milled his right arm so he performed an upwards cut to the brutes arm. The brute screamed in agony, and Adam couldn't put him out his misery yet. A second brute tried to punch him with the blades of his spiker and Adam blocked it with his left arm, and stabbed it in the chest. He quickly disengaged and ducked from the incoming blow from a Brute behind him. He let himself fall to his arms on the ground, spun upward so his back was now facing the ground and kicked the legs out from underneath the brute. It fell hard to the ground and dropped its spiker. It was temporarily out of the fight so the Sergeant moved on to the final Brute. He jumped up to his legs and saw it charging him, arms flailing from side to side. When it got in ranged, Adam extended his arm and punched it right in the face. The helmet caved in from the blow and shards of metal, bone, and flesh escaped from its face. The lifeless body fell to the ground; and he quickly killed the two Brutes he disengaged from earlier. Four dead bodies, in the matter of five seconds.

The blood drained from his eyes and the animal returned to the dark cave which it lived in. He pushed everything to the back of his mind and sighed relief. Chris was charging the enemy, firing rockets into anything he could see.

He was alright; and the company was either dead or had retreated to the others. No matter, they would be dealt with soon enough.

"This is Hayabusan Sergeant-484, Death Squad. All ODST forces in the vicinity respond."

"Death Squad? Hayabusan? Who are you guys?" A female voice crackled over the COM.

"Spartans ma'am. We're your reinforcements you asked for. Tasked with eliminating the Covenant in the area."

"Spartans? How many of ya?"

"Six, ma'am."

"Six? Fuck; That's not reinforcements that's a burial detail! Listen Spartan or Hayabusan or whoever the fuck you are, get over to this building now I have got a ton of wounded and dead here, we need to evac immed-"

Adam cut her off, "Negative, HIGHCOM wants this position secured on the double. With all due respect ma'am, my Spartans and I can get it done. We just need some help from your position."

"And who put you in command, _Sergeant?_" the voice snapped.

Adam was frustrated; this commander, or whoever the hell she is, was obviously too attached to her troops to regroup and push back the final companies. She was willing to put the mission at risk to save her men. Not necessarily a bad trait for a commander, but she still needed to pull herself together to complete the mission, no matter how many of her men were lost.

Enough was enough. "Ma'am, I am coming towards you now and you had better hope that you're willing to give us a hand with taking out the remaining two companies or there will be nothing standing between you and my advanced armour." He cut the com link off and ordered Death Squad to regroup on him.

"All accounted for except Chris." Wardy told him.

"Where is he?"

"He's already at the building."

"It was a pile driver rocket that destroyed his tank, Adam; he'll be looking for that Marine," Amanda commented.

"Let's hurry then."

The five of them jogged over to the building. It was evident that it was once a newly finished small hotel, and now it held several signs of an intense battle. There were many giant holes in the walls, all the windows had been shattered, and the roof had large chunks of it missing.

One thing Adam and the rest of Death squad noticed was the amount of turrets set up in the windows. Each shattered window held a stationary turret, and each one covered the others fields of fire. On the roof top there were several snipers and spotters, as well as riflemen. Whoever set up camp here used the ODSTs advantage of long range marksmanship to gain an advantage over the superior Covenant numbers.

They ran up to the third floor and found Chris searching franticly for the Marine.

"I swear to fucking God I am going to find that son of a bitch." He exclaimed.

"Chris, don't do anything-"Aaron said but was cut off. He looked back at Adam and the armoured hand that was resting on his shoulder.

Aaron got the sign and closed his mouth. A group of ODSTs a few meters away were talking and with Adam's augmented ears; he could hear everything they were saying.

"Yeah I completely annihilated the Wraith that was coming to get us. I was such a snipe." One Marine said.

"Dude, I've never been able to work those new Pile Driver things. I don't get 'em." Another said.

That's all that they needed to hear, and soon enough Chris spun on his heels and made a mad dash for the ODST corporal.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Chris tore off his helmet and grabbed the ODST by the throat.

"Wha-, wha- do you mean?" He asked while trying to breath beyond Chris's grasp. He was lifted into the air by Chris and his eyes widened with shock and fear.

"You fucking shot my tank. You ignored the FOF tag and shot it anyways! Well you know what, you better be praying to fucken Christ right now, hoping I won't shoot you on spot for your actions. "

The ODST looked around and towards his buds, and they each raised their rifles at Chris.

Nick was about to jump in but Adam held him back as well, "Sarge what are you doing?"

"He'll settle it himself."

"But if they sho-"

"They won't. I'd bet on it."

Chris's eyes started pooling with blood, and he deeply said, "My armour can withstand 4.63 gigapascals of pressure. It can deflect, and shatter your 9mm magnums on impact. I can lift three times my body weight and can eat someone like you for breakfast," He pulled the Marine closer so they were nose to nose "call off your friends before I decide to hand you over to the brutes; I understand they can get pretty hungry after a day's fight."

The ODST nodded quickly and the others lowered their rifles. "Good; so you do have half a brain." Chris threw him into the wall. The ODST hit its back and dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"What the fuck did you just do to my soldier, boy?!" The same female voice came from behind Adam. They turned around to see a stout red head with the two bars insignia of a captain.

"Captain!" Adam saluted sharply and so did his Spartans...against every fibre in their body. Each of them was listening in on the exchange between their squad leader and this Captain, they knew all about her.

"Don't you dare relax until I figure out what's going on here." She snapped.

"Nothing. We just setteled it."Adam calmly stated.

"Then why the fuck is my heavy weapons specialist on the ground unconscious?! And why do they look so pale." She pointed towards the group of ODSTs who were friends of the corporal.

"A little Spartan-ODST bonding ma'am." Chris said cooly.

She paused, "I doubt that; but we have bigger problems ahead of us. At ease Spartans. We've got wounded and dead on the fourth floor and scans show that those final two companies are just about to make their final push against us. I called for evac but Pelicans won't be arriving for some time; and the Marine support we received is a skeleton company. We need a battle plan and fast."

"I have an idea; The Covenant wants this position badly. We don't know why, but they dedicated three of their companies and an entire armour division to taking it. So, why not give it to them?" Adam asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Evac this building and set up charges and claymores throughout the building so when they get in set the charges. In the meantime all your wounded will be evacuated to a safe place. If their any survivors give each of my squad ten of your men so we can surround the area and kill them off.

"Like hell I'm giving you ten of _my _men." She spat.

This time it was Amanda who lost her cool. "Listen, _Captain_, either you listen to his plan or_ all_ your men will die. The Covenant just don't give up on something they want. They'll go to extreme lengths to get it; look at Reach for an example."

"That was a planet, this is one building in the African desert." She snapped back

"You don't get it do you? This is bigger than you or your Helljumpers. If they take this area they will have a direct pathway to one of many Human Survivor outposts in the desert." Adam retorted.

"And blowing up the building is going to help?"

Adam was flustered and was about to draw his M22 when Nick rested his hand on his shoulder. He calmly nodded at him, and Adam took the hint.

"Fine; if you want to stay here and let the rest of your men be killed by their superior fire power and numbers, do it. But I have a mission to complete and I am not letting you get in the way of it. My Spartans will be on the ground taking on those Covenant bastards. Watch your fire." Adam growled.

He switched to their secure com channel, "If they're not going to help us then we'll do it on our own. We can't abandon them seeing as our mission is to support them and make sure the covenant in the area is neutralized. Let's go up to the roof and see what we can do."

"Denying a Spartans help? Unheard of." Wardy stated.

The six of them made their way up the stairs on to the roof. Several Marines and ODSTs were talking amongst themselves and looking through their scopes at the covenant in the distance. They walked to a corner of the building and sat down.

"Wardy I want you to set up shop here and cover us with your sniper cannon. Get whatever you need for a prolonged stay."

"What about the rest of us?" Nick asked.

"Taking out the one company was a breeze, but two at once? Even that's a little lopsided, and we won't have the surprise anymore." Chris stated.

"The Spartan-II's took out that Covenant Ship on Reach, and they had thousands of soldiers." Amanda stated.

"Yeah, but they also had a Nuclear bomb. We don't have the ordnance." Aaron countered.

Wardy opened his mouth, but something caught his attention and he looked towards the nervous looking Marine standing just a few feet from their circle.

"Yes?" Wardy asked.

"Sirs," The Marine saluted, "Permission to speak freely?"

"Go for it." Adam commanded. He noticed something strange about this Marine. The normal green and grey camo pattern was replaced by a green, black and brown. The helmet he carried was a half tinted visor, and his uniform showed no insignia. He was roughly 5'10" and 150 pounds.

"I don't mean to bud into other people's conversations, especially higher ranking officers, but I couldn't help but notice that the Captain wouldn't give you any help; and I think that is one dumb mistake."

"Tell me about it," Wardy muttered over their com, which caused them to chuckle.

"Well, I want to help. My name is Lieutenant Josh Soucy; black ops division, but please, don't salute, I'm here undercover." He put his arms out for emphasis.

"Why. What's going on?" Adam asked.

"Well since Truth invaded Earth, the Marines have been losing a lot of good leaders; combat hardened veterans are finally either breaking down or being killed off. My original mission was to scout the rank and crew to search for potential officers, but when the covenant showed up here the company I was searching through was tasked with reinforcing the ODST's. I was told to lead them here and help fend them off. Just from that conversation between you and the Captain over there I can tell she was recruited from one of my agents. She's obviously a bad pick, I apologize. So I'm lending you my company, ten men for each of you, and I have a sniper team that can support you from up here."

"You think he checks out?" Adam asked over the com.

"Sounds like typical ONI to me, Sarge." Nick said.

"Same here." Aaron mumbled while he fiddled with his Scar. He only did that when he was itching for a fight. Adam nodded at him and Aaron stopped.

The other three simply nodded, and Adam said, "Sounds good. Wardy, you know the drill."

"Yeah, I'm gunna grab some ammo." Wardy got up and walked away.

"Alright; I'll give you each ten of my men and head out just after dark. We'll stick to your plan. I'm coming with you, Sergeant; but you will have full tactical command."

"Yes, sir." Adam replied.

**A/N: Sorry for such a long time in between updates. I went away for Spring Break and I didn't have time before to update. I hope you guys enjoy and I'll get right on Level Three.**

**-fL92**


	6. Part One: Level Three

**A/N: Hey everybody welcome to the third chapter. Wait...does anybody actually read these things anymore? Haven't you guys noticed a pattern here? I just replace the chapter number...yeah. Anyways there are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to HavocLegionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Enjoy!**

**Part One**

**Level Three**

**Time to Tango**

**1042 Hours, November 27, 2552 (Military Calendar) \****  
150 Kilometres south east of Voi, Kenya, East African Protectorate.  
Earth**

"One, this is two. There's a Brute scout party one click to the east. I suggest you take them out quietly. All Deaths, other than the scout party, no Covenant movement from the camp is detected." Wardy reported over the com.

Adam, crouching in the sands, patched the message through to the Marines microphones', and in return he received an acknowledge light from the Lieutenant. "Roger, One out."

Adam crept through the African sand in a low crouch, and signalled the Marines to follow him in the same manor. The ten Marines plus the Lieutenant stayed close to the Sergeant, sweeping the area with their silenced assault rifles to clear the area.

It was cold out tonight, Adam could tell by warm breathe escaping from the Marines lungs. Not wanting to give away their position, the Sergeant turned towards the Lt. and pointed towards the location of his mouth, and then placed his hand over it; signalling them to cover up. The Lt. relayed the orders and each of the marines silently tied a piece of cloth over their mouths.

Adam scanned the area; they were currently in an open area of sand, surrounded by dunes but no cover. Off to the south were an oasis, and the Brute camp. Giant floodlights as well as several guards patrolling the front searched the area for any intruder. The Brute scout party that Wardy had reported in was off to their left, just over one of many looming sand dunes.

The Hayabusan Sergeant rallied the marines and ordered them to start running towards the Brute party. He took his Scar assault rifle off his back and attached a silencer to it. Watching their leader carefully, the marines all made sure their weapons were securely loaded and continued to run. Adam had to continually make sure that he wasn't outdistancing them.

They arrived at the dune and quickly scaled it. Once they reached the top, the Sergeant raised a closed fist to signal the squad to stop. He silently pulled out a fibre optic probe from his ammo belt and slithered it over top of the sand. The probe linked to his HUD and a real-time video of the scout party appeared. They were a few meters down the dune, and were slowly and cautiously making their way to the building which housed the ODST's. The Covenant troops were wired tight and alert; and the Brute commander was smart. He had ordered the grunts to utilize their heightened sense of smell to sniff out a possible ambush.

Adam disabled the probe and used hand signals to issue his orders.

_Sergeant, take 5 men, cut them off. Stay out of sight till the signal. Rest of you, with me._

The Marine Sergeant and half his men stood up and ran to the other end of the dune to cut the Brutes off. After hearing the in position signal from the Marine Sergeant, Adam waved his hand forward to the Lieutenant and the remainder of the squad. They crawled up the edge of the dunes as the Hayabusan kept an eye on the Grunts, waiting for them to pop their snouts high in the crisp air and try to pick up their scents. A grunt clad in black armour raised its snout high in the air and sniffed vigorously. It stood up on all fours and continued to smell. It paused, and then turned to the Brute Major-

That was the signal. Adam said over the com, "Go, go, go!"

The Marines jumped from their prone positions on top of the dune and blanketed the surprised Covenant forces with overlapping fields of silent, but deadly full metal jacket rounds. The Marine Sergeant and his men dived from cover and caught the Covenant off guard.

The Covenant squad was dead in minutes after the engagement. "Sergeant, go check the bodies for some kind of radio or anything useful. Everyone else regroup on me."

Adam kicked up sand as he walked down from the dune with the rest of the Marines filing in behind him. The Hayabusan chose a spot just a few meters down the Dune for the Marines to regroup and change clips if they needed to. After a few moments the Marine Sergeant and his team arrived.

The Sergeant simply shook his head, nothing salvageable.

"Alright; let's move on. The other teams should be in position soon." Adam stated.

Together the group of 12 made their way quickly and silently through the African night towards the out stretching oasis. The stars shone in the African dark and a slight breeze rustled through the plants of the oasis. There was an odd vibe in the air and Adam could feel it in his stomach, something bad was going to happen tonight.

"Team 5 and 6 in position. All threats neutralized. Out" Amanda's voice came over the COM

"Roger that. We're almost in position."

The Spartans had decided that it would be best if they took out the Covenant _quietly. _It would reduce the risk of causality and lower the odds against them. They were divided into six teams. Team one was made up Adam and the Lieutenant, and they were to enter through the main part of the camp and take out the lower ranking guards. Team 2 was Wardy's sniper team, which was spread out from the building to the oasis and in between. They were tasked with covering them as they made their advance as well as taking out all the perimeter guards. Team 3, or Chris's team was tasked with cutting out the lights, and Team 4 which was lead by Aaron was tasked with disrupting the bases communications. Team 5, led by Amanda, was to infiltrate the inner workings of the camp, and neutralize those guards inside. Team 6 which was lead by Nick had run off with his marines to support Team 5 once they cut out the lights. Together Nick and Amanda would drive to the main part of the camp and take out the commanding officers. In case things got bad, they each carried C4 to plant around the camp so they could get out in a hurry.

It was up to Adam's team to link up with Aaron and Chris once they had completed their objectives to take out the rest of the camp. The plan wasn't flawless and the Sergeant knew once the lights went out the remaining guards inside the camp would know something was up. The Marines looked alert and what the lieutenant described them as "frosty". Death Squad had never worked with Marines before, so he didn't know if he should protect them or rely on them.

Adam put the thought aside and continued on moving towards his position: just a few hundred meters outside of the perimeter of the camps, just beyond their sensors. One of the main goals in Aaron's objective was to the disable these sensors, how he got around them was entirely up to him.

"Team 4 in position, Covenant neutralized, waiting for you. Out." Aaron's reply was short and to the point, a sign he was eager to fight.

"Roger, waiting on Team 3. Chris?" Adam replied

The com opened and the sound of muffled bullets escaped into the channel. "Team 3 in position, ready to cut the power. Out."

Adam looked behind him and gave the lieutenant a thumbs up. He simply nodded in return, saying that the marines were indeed still "frosty".

"All Deaths, commence 'Death by Night'."

The outside lights shut off immediately, and an icon on Adam's HUD appeared telling him that the com channels were open. Without a moment's hesitation he jumped up from where he was crouching and sprinted towards the camp. He hardly made a sound as his boots imprinted the ground. The shadows of the night covered him in his burst of speed; no one could've seen him coming. Behind him the Marines were slowly following, trying not to make a sound with their heavy breathing and clunking gear.

On the way towards the camp, Adam decided that the Lieutenant should have command over his Marines. The decision was based off his own reasoning: the fact that he wouldn't be able to rely on the marines for support. They were only human and didn't have the reflexes, training, or augmentations he and his fellow siblings received.

The Hayabusan looked around; this part of the camp was set up with two columns of small tents facing each other, which Adam guessed were the guard's quarters. After about half a kilometre into the camp it started to spread out into several more columns of much larger camps; most likely the barracks. It was typical set up; lower ranking soldiers in the front of the camp where there was a more likely chance of an attack with the higher ranking officers deeper in the camp living extravagantly for a warzone.

Adam entered the first tent without hesitation. The occupants were asleep, so the Hayabusan pulled out his silenced M6E. He placed a high explosive round into each of the Jackals skulls.

He left the tent just as the marines were arriving. The Lieutenant split up his marines into two squads and they each took a side. One by one, mechanically and flawlessly they neutralized the sleeping covenant. Something was strange and it nagged at the back of the Sergeants mind, if this is the tents for the low ranking guards, where were the Grunts? After going through several of the large tents he had found none of them.

Adam put aside the thought, but didn't forget about it. The marines and the Spartan continued to neutralize the sleeping covenant until the first entire section was eliminated. Without making a sound, the team moved up the main part of the camp, filled with columns of barracks. A faint whisper came over the COM, "_Oly oly oxen free." _

Adam returned the call and Aaron and his marines came out of the shadows; completely hidden along the wall of a barrack nearby. Him and his ten marines walked over to Adam and the Lieutenant and said, "I scouted out the area, there's about seven columns with three barracks each. I'm guessing that every column holds a few platoons. Some are smaller than the others, which I'm guessing are the Methane Tanks for the Grunts."

_That's right, the methane tanks. _"Sounds good, any word from Chris?" Adam asked.

"He's already at the far end, neutralizing them." He replied

"Alright," He switched com frequencies, "Lieutenant, you can take your men and go to the west end of here, my Spartans and I will be taking the east."

"OK Sergeant; good hunting."

Adam and Aaron passed the Marines under Chris's command and continued to make their way towards the east end of the camp. The cold and quiet night made it difficult for the marines and their heavy gear to move around in a silent fashion. The Spartans however were extremely comfortable in the sort of environment. They were trained in all fields of battle and this environment was like another home. An amber acknowledge light on the Spartan's HUD flashed twice.

Adam and Aaron stopped to a halt and hit the dirt hard while a pair of Banshees swooped over head.

Adam tracked the banshees as they circled above; they were looking for something, or someone. They finally landed 100 meters away near some ammo boxes. Aaron looked over at Adam and pointed towards a few of the boxes covered by the shadows. Chris was there, waiting for them.

Adam slowly pulled out his Scar and made sure his scope was aligned and his silencer was screwed on tight. Aaron did the same and together they crawled closer to the Banshees. Two brute captains in purple armour drew their Maulers and searched the area. The Sergeant flipped the safety off.

Four muffled shots escaped from the Spartans rifles and lodged themselves into the Brutes backs. Chris burst from the shadows and activated his Plasma blade. With silent deadliness he slit the throats of both, stopping them from yelling in pain.

The two Deaths quickly got to their feet and joined their squad mate in hiding the dead bodies of the Brutes.

"I don't know how, but they knew I was there." Chris stated.

"Yeah I know. How much C4 do you have left?" Adam asked.

"Enough to blow up this camp to hell and back."

"Good, because we might need to-"A huge explosion ripped through the camp and cut Adam off from finishing his sentence. The area where the Marines were went up in flames and engulfed everything nearby.

"Oh shit." Aaron exhaled.

"Deaths! Move, move, MOVE!" The three of them ran towards the Marines to see if anyone had been hurt. Adam quickly opened the COM channel, "Amanda, Nick! Finish whatever you're doing and get here right now! Open a COM channel with the Captain and tell her we'll need reinforcements!" As much as it bugged Adam that he would have to be asking her for help, he knew Death Squad, even with 60 Marines couldn't handle two companies.

"Roger that." Amanda's icy voice came over the COM

Debris fell from the sky as fires light the night. Adam had that feeling in his gut, the same one as they were making their way towards the camp.

"Ever heard the phrase 'I told you so', Sarge?" Aaron asked over their private com.

Adam would've reprimanded Aaron for the stupid, although true comment. It wasn't a time for jokes, they needed to buckle down and finish the objective. The Deaths made it over to the other side of the camp in only a few seconds.

"Marine! Report!" The Sergeant asked a nearby Medic who was attending to an injured marine. Adam crouched behind a pile of debris as the Marine gave his report.

"It was a Methane Tent sir! A grunt lunged at Private Lee and he dropped a grenade." He nodded to the Marine he was attending to. He couldn't be any younger than 21, his sharp, dying dark eyes gave away his Asian ethnicity. His white pale skin was stained by the blood that was pouring from his neck. The artery had been bitten by the grunts naturally sharp carnivorous teeth and penetrated right to the bone. His last breath was given and his eyes rolled back into his head, another Marine had fallen.

Adam was used to death. "Where's the Lieutenant?"

"Over there behind some debris." The Medic nodded ahead of him.

Adam sprang up and sprinted towards the Lieutenant. He was taking cover behind a pile of debris several meters away from where the tent had been destroyed. Aaron took up position a few meters behind them to their right, spraying covering fire into the Covenant that had been awakened. Chris had run off to complete his task.

"Lieutenant! There's no way anyone could've missed that. The companies will be at full strength and converging on us in a matter of minutes! You have to retreat, my Spartans will handle it." He said while putting a few rounds into a Brute.

"No! We can hold them!"

"Sir my Spartans are placing C4 around the camp as we speak. It'll be detonated along with the ones they had previously put up in case something like this happened. That's an order." The Sergeant coldly stated.

Josh stared at him. Adam remembered that the Lieutenant had given him full tactical command of the situation, and now it had come back to haunt him. "You'll have to court martial me." The Lieutenant spat.

Adam simply stared at the Marine. His shields flared and lowered as he started taking hits, but all he could think of was the anger swelling up inside of him. Not only was his Spartan attitude screaming at him to shoot the Marine on sight, but as well as the regulations. The Hayabusans were trained, and literally whipped to obey a commanding officer, as well as to protect your sibling to the right and to the left of you. It was undeniable; he was putting his life and the lives of his men in an avoidable risk

But all he could do was breathe out his frustration; no matter how much anger clouded his judgement, his logic and understanding made it clear he simply could not kill him. It was obvious that humanity needed all the soldiers it could get, but not only that, for a Marine to see a _Spartan _kill another human, it would diminish the trust, moral, and the reputation the Spartan-II's had built from ground up.

Adam side stepped out of cover and started shooting at the brutes that had dared shoot at him.

"One, charges have been set and the commanders have been neutralized. I've regrouped with three and six, we're heading you're way now-"Adam cut off Amanda's report.

"Negative! Retreat to the back of the camp, end of discussion. One out," he switched Com channels ""Lieutenant, the charges are set and we are leaving; Aaron, let's go!"

The thought of dying in an explosion must not have sat well in his stomach. The Lieutenant finally gave in and yelled "Fall back Marines! Fall back!"

The Marines abandoned their spots and ran with all their strength to the edge of the camp. Aaron and the Lieutenant stood beside Adam, providing the marines with covering fire. Once all the Marines were clear, they threw all their grenades and ran.

Several meters ahead of them a wall exploded and dust and debris engulfed the area where the Marines were in, and forth came the scariest and deadliest myth of the Covenant.

A Drinol beast roared in anger and blood fury. It was six meters tall and two meters wide. Its hands were like steel hammer heads lined with spikes. It had a flat head, covered with razor sharp steel spikes and slits for eyes. It swiped and thrashed around, throwing Marines around like candy. Its mere presence drowned the area into a widespread fear induced panic. The Marines unlucky enough to be anywhere near it tried to fight back but were aiming wildly, missing as the fear gripped a hold on their minds. On the other hand, the Hayabusans of Death Squad remained calm and collective. Only a silver of surprise and regret poked at the Sergeant. He should have seen something like this happen.

"Deaths regroup and get some fire on that thing; the Marines need some covering fire now! Wardy get over here pronto!" Adam ordered with haste.

Five Scar Assault Rifles opened up and poured lead into the beast. Some penetrated and others didn't, but it seemed the more it was hurt the angrier it became. It slashed its razor sharp hands around in rage, trying to hit anything it could. Shock and fury overcame the Lieutenant, and in a desperate attempt to regroup his men and save them from the shadow of fear he charged the Drinol beast yelling to his men. He gradually started to get through to the Marines; they remembered their training as each one would find cover, and provide covering fire for their comrades running into the safety of the oasis. The Lieutenant looked fearless as he stood in the open, shooting at any foe he could see. Adam realized that the Hayabusans were just as human as the Marines. When it came to defending the only family you've known, you'll put your life on the line. Adam's thoughts were cut short, and whatever hope and courage was re-establishing itself in the Marines was quickly banished away as one of the Drinol's razor sharp fists made contact with the Lieutenant. His body went flying into a tent wall thirty feet away. Adam's augmented ears picked up the sound of bones cracking.

A different, larger sounding _crack _pierced through the sounds of battle as a 25 millimetre cannon round penetrated the Drinol's upper right shoulder. It yelled in agony and furry but didn't slow down. Three more shots rang out, all making gaping holes in the beast, but it wouldn't succumb to the Spartans.

"Aaron! Catch!" Wardy yelled to Aaron as he threw him a Spartan Laser. He had emerged from the tree line with his sniper cannon in hand, giving the Marines covering fire as they retreated back towards the oasis.

"Where'd you get this?!" Aaron yelled back

"Who cares?! Kill that thing NOW!" Adam yelled back.

The rest of Death squad kept the Drinol's attention away from Aaron as he charged up the Spartan Laser. The squad aimed for its weak points, where the Sniper Cannon had made large holes in its soft flesh. In three seconds, a red glow pierced the air and drove right through the beast. The force of the blow, coupled with its deep wounds, tore the Drinol literally to pieces.

With the major threat neutralized, Adam ordered Death squad to start retreating with the Marines, with much complaint. Wardy stayed with Adam and together they made their way over to the Lieutenant.

"Sir!" Adam exclaimed. He looked over the Lieutenants broken, mangled body. It was amazing he hadn't gone straight into shock, but his eyes gave away that he was fighting it off. Blood pooled from his mouth as he tried his best to raise his head.

"Sergeant..." he coughed up blood, "I know my duty..plea...the detonator. It was an honour fighting with you...you have...thirty...sec..." His voice trailed off as the he struggled to hold onto the last bit of energy in his body. Adam and Wardy snapped off crisp and precise salutes, and then ran off into the forest.

Lieutenant Josh Soucy blinked up at the sky and smiled. He was going to finally meet all his lost men, his family. He clutched the detonator in his hands with a dying firm grip and started counting down. As he reached 15 a bright light started to overcome his eyes, he saw his mother, his father. It was now or never, and he was determined to make his broken, beat up body do one last act of sacrifice and dignity to humanity.

"We'll never die without a bang." Tears swelled up in his eyes and he hit the detonator.

Multiple explosions ripped through the camp, starting from the inside and mushrooming out. The last thing he remembered was feeling the greatest sense of warmth, comfort, and pride, any Marine could ask for. Blackness finally enveloped him.

There was one life lesson that the Hayabusans were never taught in training, or could never be passed down from one great soldier to another. It was something that had to be encountered with one's own eyes and ears. The Lieutenants actions of valour and service made a deep impression into the still young Spartans. His self sacrifice was never forgotten.

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter; took me a little longer to write. I'd write half of it, read it over a few times, and then delete it because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Next chapter is going to be a little shorter, more political, but nonetheless action packed. **


	7. Part One: Level Four

**A/N: Hey everybody welcome to the third err I mean fourth chapter. People, people, do you actually read these things anymore? Haven't you guys noticed a pattern here? I just replace the chapter number...yeah. Anyways there are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to HavocLegionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Enjoy!**

**Part One**

**Level Four**

**What do you mean the Colonel isn't working today?**

**0812 Hours, November 27, 2552 (Military Calendar) \  
Bridge of UNSC Super Carrier**_** Double Edged Sword,**_**  
Earth's Orbit.**

Colonel Yeung's sharp dark eyes never blinked as he watched the view screen display data on his Spartans. On both sides of the two meter display were monitors connected to video cameras in the docking bays, scanning and watching the Hayabusans enter the HEVs properly, and making sure nothing goes wrong. It was a stupid paranoia; his Spartans were the best, even better then Halsey's; but even with that soon to be established reputation, his sense of parenthood creped over his shoulder. A feeling he promised would not become a burden like it did on his predecessor, Doctor Halsey.

At the beginning of the project, the then Major of the 34th Armoured Battalion had been approached by Colonel Ackerson to start a new Spartan project. The Major simply couldn't refuse; after years of field service as a crewman part of the armour regiment he was begging for his passion of Military Science to be put to use. The Colonel immediately set up the training facilities and successfully managed to pull Yeung off of the rosters and onto ONI Section Thee. Ackerson supplied everything he demanded, and in return Yeung created the strongest, smartest, and most powerful Spartans ever.

In the process Yeung learned secrets he had never thought would be possible. He gathered information on equipment that had not come from humans and made the difference between life and death for the Hayabusans. They may be the strongest, smartest, and most powerful, but they were the most _inhuman. _

He cringed and pushed the thought aside. _Something's were never meant to be uncovered. Some lines were not meant to be crossed, yet I crossed them. And I can never make it up to them._

"Lieutenant Colonel?" His Navigation officer piqued in and broke the Colonels deep thoughts. The young man's light brown eyes pierced into his own black eyes, and looked as if he knew of _everything. _

"Sorry. Continue on this heading and put is a loop orbit around Earth. I want a full scale invasion assessment as we pass over it. Charge both Mac guns, and unlock the safeties on our Longbow Missile pods, rows A-E."

"Aye." His navigation and weapons officer replied.

The Super Carrier lived up to its name as _Double Edged Sword. _Of the same line as the legendary battle carrier _Trafalgar,_ the ship would form the core of any battle group. It supported two of the new generation of medium MACs designed for higher chances of hitting. In the past, light MACs have a higher probability of impact than the heavies though at the cost of less power and inferior terminal ballistics. The intermediate medium MAC is smaller and faster than the heavies, but packs enough energy and damage potential. The self-sharpening tungsten Ballistic Tip shells are designed for shorter flight time and to first mushroom at impact before fragmenting to maximize terminal ballistics and energy transfer, allowing maximum shield damage. Any hull impact could take whole sections of a covenant ship with it as it tears through, leaving a horrific exit wound in its wake. Its Archer missiles were refitted and upgrade to tandem HEAT/HEDP warhead soft-launch Longbow missiles, though ground/air attack TBX warheads are also available for low intensity orbital bombardment. It carried 60 50mm rotary turrets carrying flak and armour piercing rounds on its belly, port and starboard sides. They could rotate at 360 degrees, and are A.I controlled or follow pre-programmed targeting protocols. It supported three docking bays, one for its fighters, one for emergency transports, and another specially designed for the Spartans. An upgraded Mk 1.1 Electronic Warfare Suite renders it all but impossible to target the carrier and its escorts beyond 21000 kilometers, giving it an impressive effective weapons range advantage over any covenant ship. Great emphasis was given to install EMP resistent Gallium Arsenide circuitry and to ground and shield them for further protection. Superboosted Helium-3 reactor technology combined with new inertial dampeners and engine modifications based on superior captured covenant designs makes the _Double Edged Sword _the fastest capital ship in the fleet. Thick layers of Adiabatically Reactive Ceramic (ARC) and Titanium-B armor plates converts all energy based weapons into kinetic shock, something that the honeycomb Titanium-C hull is capable of withstanding in generous portions. Despite the armor, however, the _Double Edged Sword_, like all carriers, was not designed for a close in fight; her primary mode of defense is still to avoid getting hit. She still need her cruiser and destroyer escorts for a real fight.

The ship needed to be well armed and armoured, because it carried some valuable supplies in the armoury, which spanned half the belly of the ship. With the creation of the new Spartans, the Lt. Colonel took it upon himself to create new and improved guns, starting off with the Spartan's own series then moving on and making new guns for the Marines. It would definitely even the odds between the Marines and Covenant. But it didn't end at infantry arms; as the lead weapons developer of the United Nations Defense Force, he developed new vehicles as well, spanning from the new Black Scorpion MBT to the Leopard APC and to the Falcon air superiority fighters. The Colonel stood a little straighter and a smile formed on his face as pride made through his veins. In the recent months of the war, the Colonel had been sending secret shipments of the Marine weapons back to Earth through Mars. Ackerson took it upon himself to convince those on the Mars armoury that they had received funding and authorization for the project.

The doors to the bridge opened but the Colonel's eyes remained focused on the viewport screen ahead; showing the ship half way through its orbit around Earth.

A calm, commanding voice reached the Colonel's ears, "Permission to enter the bridge, sir?"

"Granted, Captain," The colonel turned around to face the middle aged Captain. He was roughly 5'9", 210 pounds and has short dark brown hair. His brown eyes never left the Colonol's own black eyes as he walked closer to him. Faint ripples of light surrounded him as he walked. "it is your ship after all, Garth."

"Aye, but you are the ranking officer, and I'm not the one to ignore protocol." The Captain replied.

"Aiden, Karen, you can come out, you're not fooling anyone." The Colonel replied.

Two figures in SPI Mark-III armour shimmered into view at the Captains side. Aiden and Karen had been previous Spartan-III candidates but failed, and became the DI's for the next batch of recruits. They had been taken from Onyx during Beta Company's training, under the cover of a "routine exercise gone wrong near 'Zone 67'", for the Colonels purposes. Well, it was Ackerson who said he needed them, claiming "You need Spartans to train Spartans." Even though the DI's weren't technically Spartans at the time, the Colonel soon changed that when they arrived at his training facility, giving them altered augmentations to fit with their genes and age. They were both in their mid twenties, around 6'7", 200 pounds of muscle and complemented with striking features. Appearances are deceiving with these two; although their striking features and apparently calm attitude may give off the feelings of genuine Spartans, they're cold, brutal, and with a hatred against other Spartan-III's that would give the ODST's hatred of Spartans a run for its money.

They were still two of the Colonels closest friends, and his personal body guards. "Where's Echo Squad?" The Colonel asked of the whereabouts of the Spartan-III squad that had "vanished."

"They're in the armoury, checkin' out the new presents." Aiden replied with a smile.

"You truly are the Good Colonel." The Captain smiled and took his seat commander's chair.

"Just doing my job." Yeung replied with a hint of pain in his throat. He kept his emotions under control and thought, _I do owe them, after all. _

The Captain stared at the several view screens in front of him. "Give me a status report of the battle."

"120 Human controlled ships are orbiting Earth with 60 orbital MAC guns still online. More ships that are on recall should be arriving in the next couple of days. There are over 1000 Covenant Ships, accompanied by three super destroyers with the sniper-laser cannons, and the Forerunner Dreadnaught."

"Jesus Christ." Swearing technically wasn't allowed on the bridge, but authority did have its privileges.

"Kat, are both MAC Guns charged up?"

"Yes sir." His weapons officer responded.

"Target one of the super destroyers with the MAC Guns; coordinated it so the lighter rounds arrive right on the heavy's impact."

"Aye sir, Ike?"

The ship's A.I. powered on and appeared on the bridge. He chose the identity of the great American General Dwight Eisenhower back in WWII. His figure consisted of an American soldier dressed in the green fatigues, wearing the helmet and wielding a very ancient Thompson sub machine gun.

"Already ahead of you; and if my algorithms are correct, which they are, that destroyer is going to be in for one nasty surprise." He replied.

"Good," the Lt. Colonel hit the switch to the inter-ship com "Longsword and Falcon pilots, suit up and report to your docking stations. Pelicans and Albatrosses, load up everything from the armoury, it needs to get to the surface. I'm coming in five."

"George, you're going down?" The Captain swiveled around in his chair and quickly stood up.

"Someone needs to get this stuff down to Earth safely." Yeung replied

The Captain hesitated for a moment before he gave his response. "I understand. It was a pleasure serving with you, Colonel." He snapped off a precise salute.

George returned the gesture. "I'll see you soon."

The Colonel and his Spartans left the bridge as red lights throughout the ship flared on. The Captain's voice echoed throughout the hallway, "Battle stations people." An unbelievably loud ripple of thunder followed the warning, and it rang through the ship. It was soon followed by three more in succession. The MAC guns were being fired.

Aiden put his hand to his ear, "Echo Squad is requesting a rendezvous point, where do they go?"

"Tell them to stock up on ammo and weapons, and then go get an Albatross to load up the King. We'll meet them in the docking bay in ten."

Aiden relayed the orders to Echo Squad's leader. The Colonel and his Spartans briskly walked through one of the ships many hallways towards an elevator, which would bring them down to the armoury. It only took a few moments before they had descended into the belly of the ship and entered the armoury. It was packed with technicians and military personal packing and storing weapons and armour for the shipment down to Earth.

The Colonel picked up a suit of black body armour that resembled the standard issued ODST armour. Instead it was made of the same materiel as the SPI Mark III armour, in replacement of the photo reactive panels (allowing for camouflage) it supported the black camo patterns. He quickly changed from his dress uniform into the tight fitting ARC armour.

The many men and women he had encountered during his tour with the Hayabusa program would always give a strange look when they put the rank and physique together. George didn't fit the regulation size armour, he was too big, which came with being a tank crewman. He was of Chinese decent, over six feet tall, weighed 200 pounds and loved making guns. When giving his report on the new program outlines and weapons upgrades to Ackerson, he was borderline eccentric. He was proud of his own work but at the same time he had to remain professional and in control.

Being the total heavy weapons enthusiast he is, he picked up one of the new M55A battle rifle variant with a grenade launcher attachment, accompanied by a clip of Depleted Uranium rounds, and three clips of the white phosphorus rounds. To complete his personal arsenal, he picked up three 40mm grenades, a hand held flash bang and EMP, and an M22 PDW with three clips of ammo. Aiden and Karen both equipped themselves with the Battle Rifle variant, with Aiden supporting the Grenade launcher attachment, and Karen supporting the shotgun version.

Aiden picked up a TBX grenade and tossed it up and down like a piece of fruit.

"You know how dangerous those things are." George said as he picked up his helmet.

"You were always the one telling us about 'Shock and Awe'." Aiden replied

The Colonel smiled and said, "Let's get to the docking bay, Echo will be there waiting."

For convenience, the ships designers made it so the armoury was located on the same floor as the docking bay, enabling soldiers a quick suit up and flight out of there. But it also proved for security problems; if a Covenant ship was to ever target the docking bay, it could very well hit the armoury and cause massive internal damage or very well destroy the ship. Thus, the Captain requested an extra two meters of Titanium-B to be reinforced in those areas.

The trio rounded a corner and the door to one of three docking bays automatically slid open. Inside, twenty technicians loaded up an Albatross, and to the right side, the first of the next generation of offensive tanks lay.

­­­­­­­­ In the past, the concept of a tank destroyer would be widely ridiculed, and rightfully so as the tank destroyer is a very specialized weapon that rarely finds its intended opponents and is often outmatched by the opponents that it actually encounters, namely well armed infantry. With the current war at hand though, long range tactics (out of the Covenant's comfort zone of up-close and personal) and the ability to destroy any foreseeable opponent was crucial for tank warfare, especially when the Covenant started using the Scarab. With the deployment of the behemoth, the UNMC's armoured forces no longer held a definitive advantaged against Covenant armour. The Colonel went back to the drawing board with something new, a way to defeat the walkers in an open battle without overwhelming numerical superiority, and any other armour the Covenant decided to muster up.

At once, the King Scorpion was born. Using the completed research made by Dr. Halsey for the Spartan Laser project (now cancelled in favour of the Particle Cannon), the King Scorpion was admittedly a haphazardly assembled project. Development of a vehicle based laser came to fruition only at the very cusp of the covenant invasion. Though the weapon works there weren't proper time to design and construct a proper chassis and support systems. In the end, the laser system was installed onto the Black Scorpion chassis, one that though functional in this purpose could be replaced with a better design had the UNDF had the time. The laser compensated for the lack of explosive force with the new pulse energy projectile protocol; while firing at full charge, pulse modulation first vaporizes the top layer of the target before infusing the plasma with enough energy to give it a huge explosive effect as well as penetrating power capable of threatening a scarab's thick armour in just a few shots as compared to the dozens of strikes needed with conventional guns. As a laser, the weapon cannot be dodged and strikes instantly as well as sporting a 15km range. This raw power, however, comes at the price; the ill-suited scorpion chassis and power plant cannot supply enough power to fire more than two full power discharges per minute and the bulky capacitors reduce the secondary weapons to one pincer mount. Still, the weapon can fire on lower settings, allowing it to achieve weapons kills on wraiths easily and catastrophic kills on lighter vehicles even while in this weaker mode. Though incredible lethal in concentration against vehicles, the Tank Destroyer remains very vulnerable to well armed infantry and needs to be escorted at all times.

If there was something the Colonel wanted the UNMC to improve upon the most was there tank warfare. While he was in his armoured core, he experienced all kinds of near death situations and witnessing the fall of some of his comrades; neither because of the Wraith Mortar Tanks nor the covenant's version of the Warthog, the Spectre and the Brute Prowlers, but the fast movers such as the Ghost or Chopper. In the first few engagements the Covenant would take their Mortar tanks and face the head on in tank vs. tank warfare. The Scorpion tanks, out-doing them in superior fire power, range, and speed, would crush them with easy. After time went on the Covenant adapted to a new tactic: high speed engagements. They would send waves and waves of Ghosts to boost behind the human lines where the heavy guns could not track them so close to themselves and attack the tanks in areas they were weakest in, using short controlled bursts where the main gun or the turret couldn't get them. The UNMC tried to respond by reinforcing tank squads with light escorts to keep the fast movers at bay but it proved impractical for a major offensive. Aside from the sheer logistical problems, they couldn't use the warthogs in attack runs to provide support and clear out areas for the infantry, and at the same time be recalled to provide support for the tanks. The Warthogs didn't have the numbers to support an offensive/defensive role (there were only two Warthogs per tank squad). So without very many options, the tanks were used mainly artillery pieces to provide long range support from Wraiths and prowlers, only advancing when the Warthogs reported that the fast movers had been neutralized. The then Tank crewman was despised at the tactics and when he was picked up by Ackerson he went back to the drawing board to devise a way to keep Tanks safer from the fast movers, and be more of a defensive asset to assist in support roles. Thus the Black Scorpion was born; and soon in its steps the King Scorpion was created, filling in the gap for an offensive tank. It was still in the prototype stages, because he was in the middle of smoothing out the wrinkles when the Colonel got word that Earth had been invaded. In his haste he left the King as it was, got everyone to pack their bags and get on board _Double Edged Sword_, where the Colonel personally debriefed the Hayabusans. There, each team was given an objective.

The Colonel tried to focus back on the conversation he was having with one of the engineers tasked with working on the engine of the King Scorpion, but he was having a hard time. A sense of concern for his Spartans again flooded over him. He knew he shouldn't have to worry about them, they were the best. The Colonel tried to make it up to them by committing his life to their welfare, making them the best armour, the best weapons and trained them to be the toughest sons of bitches in the UNMC arsenal. No matter what he did, there was gnawing sense of betrayal in the back of his head.

The Colonel took a look around docking bay 3, not much caring for what the engineer had to say because he was already aware of what was wrong with the tank. The middle aged man was only reinforcing his previous assumptions, and only made the Colonels new path of construction seem more like the best option. The docking bay was painted in the UNDF's colours, with red war stripes lining certain walls. The Captain insisted on the arrangement, saying that troops were inspired by pictures and colors that represented glory, honour, and pride as much as powerful speeches and videos of the Spartans at work. After a few moments of glancing over the metal interior, his eyes fell on the Albatross. There was more than just the King Scorpion that was being loaded onto the massive transport vehicle. A troop carrier Warthog as well as the LAAG was being driven into the vehicle bay. Echo Squad was surrounding the tank; taking notes and looking in awe of the machine. Aiden and Karen had already made their way over to Echo Squad.

A door across the room that led to the other docking bays slid open and six Hayabusans casually strolled towards the other Spartans. The Colonel finished his conversation with the engineer and made his way over to the group of Spartans. They were each engrossed in a conversation over their helmet comlinks, and at that moment the Colonel felt oddly out of place; that would soon have to end. As he approached them they each saluted him.

"At ease," Each Spartan lowered their arms, and relaxed. Even though the emotion was as subtle as their shoulders lowering slightly, the Colonel could read it as if they had sat down and started to have a smoke. Spending the better part of your life with men you've been with since they were six taught you a lot about them.

"Aiden, Karen, and Echo; you're with me. We're going down to the surface to deliver the King. Phantom Squad, you're heading to the Bermuda Triangle. The Covenant is their looking for something and the Brass wants us to find it first. You'll be dropped off in a Pelican in thirty minutes." He paused, thinking. "I have something to give you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out six small cylinder items. On each of the black color there was a small orange rectangle, the activation button to allow the wielder a few seconds of precious active camouflage.

"We don't know what kind of forces you're dealing with down there. We lost recon patrols and intel on the Covenant that were deployed down there, they all seemed to have dropped out of contact. So I want you to be careful, no heroic stuff, get in there, take what they were looking for, and get out. You will be in radio contact with air support."

"Yes, sir." The Squad leader, First Lieutenant Paul-251 replied. Each member of Phantom squad was the average height of a Hayabusan, around two meters tall. Paul was a natural leader though; he had the ability to issue out orders and inspire his squad mates, and at the same time be a funny and upbeat person. It was his astonishing qualities as a leader that got him promoted to a First Lieutenant. No matter who he commanded, he was able to lead them to victory. Countless battles were won and the stats didn't lie, he earned his promotions.

The Colonel took a moment to look over Phantom Squad before the pilot of the pelican dropship told them, the kind way, to hurry up and get on board.

Paul and the rest of the Spartans perfectly saluted, and the Colonel returned it was a grin. "Go get 'em."

With that Phantom Squad boarded the pelican, and the same sinking feeling invaded the Colonel. Except this one, he could not shrug off.

"Alright Spartans, follow me, we got to get the new heir to his throne."

**Three Hours After Scene in Docking Bay**

Captain Garth Relt never really spoke to anyone about his feelings; only the people he cared about the most. And when shit started to hit the fan, the same old feelings crept back on him.

They had been fighting Covenant Cruisers for the better part of the three hours they were in Sol System. It did not look good; of the 120 ships that were in orbit over earth when the Covenant attacked, only 50 or so remained standing, with half of the Super MAC guns still operational. The other half were turned into molten slag after the Covenant ships first made head to head strikes, trying to close in range to take them out. Wave after wave of ships was thrown at the MAC guns, and when that failed, the Super Destroyers started pin pointing them with their laser cannons. The remaining UNSC ships were forced to adapt to a civil war tactic, rush the enemy as fast as you could with guns blazing so they could get into range of the super carriers. Garth didn't know who ordered the attack, but it certainly did cost a lot of good ships.

And now he was going to use the same tactic he used every single time a problem rose: run away.

Sweat beads dripped down his neck as he quickly scanned the room; everyone was busy at their stations, trying to take down as many of the covenant as possible. It wasn't just FUBAR in space, from what the Captain heard, it wasn't going to well on the ground as well.

All he had to do was lie, and he was good at that. "Lieutenant, I'm going to report to the medical bay, I'm not feeling too well. You have the deck until I arrive."

"Uh, yes sir."

They all wore confused looks upon their faces, a commanding officer leaving the bridge in the middle of a battle? It broke a ridiculous amount of regulations.

But an order was an order, and the _Doubled Edged Sword's _X.O. took the bridge. The Lieutenant had just graduated from OCS school at Luna only a week before he was assigned to the Spartan-IV project. Ackerson told Captain Relts that he was allowed to pick his crew. For all his sly and under the table deals, Ackerson seemed to be the pretty generous type.

Well, if you were on his side that is; and lucky enough for Garth he was. They say that opposite poles attract, but in this case, it seemed that like poles attracted even more.

The Captain briskly made his way through the red light hallway. Technicians in orange and blue jumpsuits ran around, not bothering to notice the officer present. Which worked in favour of Garth, the less people knew where he was the better.

He continued to walk towards his quarters, right passed the hallway he would have turned on to if he had been feeling sick. Passed crewman he hadn't personally gotten to know, all the high tech equipment he never used or never cared to learn how. Everything was being left behind, and only if it were for a few moments of salvation before the Covenant glassed the entire planet. The coward was going into hiding, ignoring his problems and praying to God they would go away.

He finally got to his quarters and keyed in the code. They slid open with a silent hiss and closed just as quietly. His room was modest; no fancy pictures or cherry oak tables; just a simple work desk, a bed with a couple of dressers, one which had a stereo player, holding his centuries old Screamo music.

A keypad was placed on the wall right next to his bed, and punched in the code, the name of his one and only love. A part of the wall flew open like a door and held a weapons rack. On it carried an Assault Rifle and a Sniper Rifle, his weapons of choice. He certainly wasn't a Spartan, and knew that the load out would be heavy considering the amount of food, water, and ammo he was bringing. But in the end, the time alone before doomsday would feel good.

His duffel bag was now filled to the brim, but there was just one last thing he needed to do.

"Ike, I need you for a moment." He spoke

"Yes? Wait, I thought you were going to check in to the medical wing?" Eisenhower said, with a slight hint of suspicion (on the account that for ego's sake, A.I.'s would never let themselves sound confused).

"I was feeling better. I need to make sure everything is ready." He replied with his head down, not daring to look at the A.I.

"Well then you should get to the bridge, I don't think Lieutenant Leving is capable of piloting a battle carrier, let alone in battle situations." The A.I. replied.

"He's more than capable. He's a good man, and a team player. He'll be fine."

"I wish I could share your confidence," He paused taking it all in. "I am alerting the staff-"

Garth cut him off, "Security override command alpha-seven. "

Ike was effectively cut off by a command that would temporarily shut down his communications. He was able to still take orders and pilot the ship, but he could be everything but the chatter box.

"Alright, sorry Ike, but it's for your own good. Initiate security override gamma-four, purge all records of this conversation," The ship lurched forward for a split second as the A.I. temporarily lost control of ship while he was purging his memory core. "Input safety codeword, JUNO."

"Thanks you Captain." The A.I. replied

"I want a status report on your core." The Captain commanded

"My memory has been effectively purged at record time stamp one-"

"Good enough. Search for an area on Earth where the Covenant hasn't hit; somewhere safe and secure."

"Somewhere to hide?"

"Yes."

"Done."

"Good, now power up Kennedy, because you're coming with me."

"What-"

_Fuck. _"Initiate override gamma-twelve, destroy all memory banks starting from military time one one two zero to one one one three five."

The ship once again slightly lurched as Ike lost control and Kennedy took over.

_I don't remember ordering him to do that. Whatever, the faster this gets done the faster I can get the hell outta here._

"Status." He demanded

"My memory has been effectively purged at record time stamp one-"

"Shut up, and transfer to my data pad. We need to get down to the surface. The Brass wants answers."

"Yes, sir."

Eisenhower disappeared and a reappeared on his data pad. On it were the co-ordinates to their little hideout. He was wondering if bringing the A.I. was a good thing; what justified it was the idea that he could somehow save it from the ships impending destruction.

After looking around one more time, he grabbed his duffel bag, cocked his M6G side arm and left for the escape pods.

--

Lieutenant Matthew Leving stood on the bridge and monitored the situation in space. It hadn't gotten any better since the Captain took his unexpected leave of absence, and failed to check himself into the med bay. He and Ike had been having secret text conversations through data pads, filling him in on the situation in the Captains quarters. Then all of a sudden, Ike wouldn't reply to him

_The bastard thinks he can run away huh, over my dead body. _So, the Lieutenant did the right thing and called in some Military Police that guard the ship, and told them to go to the escape pods. It was then that Kennedy had appeared on the bridge and started stealing the show.

"Pair of Covenant frigates ahead."

"Blast 'em."

Fighting seemed easy when you had the disposal of a next generation of smart A.I.'s. One thing they lacked though was the human instinct; the one thing that still kept human pilots in the cockpit rather than a machine.

The MAC rounds were shown on screen, completely obliterating the Brute controlled ships.

_Hmm, some Captain you were._

_--_

Garth and his hostage walked through the brightly light hallway, only to turn the corner and catch two MPs guarding the front of the escape pod. He quickly took three steps back and crouched. They couldn't know of their plan; no one followed them or had been watching them. Unless...

_Eisenhower._

Garth took out the sniper rifle in his bag and replaced the existing barrel with a silenced one. He peaked his head around the corner, and when he made sure the MPs weren't looking at him, he brought his full body into view, placed the butt of the sniper rifle to his shoulder, and fired twice.

Their heads shot out red blood and painted the walls behind them. Both bodies slumped to the ground.

Garth ran into the escape pod, and punched the code to let him out.

"Sir! Screen shows that one of our escape pods has just launched and is on an intercept vector to Nepal!" The security officer to Matt's right spoke out.

"What?! Kennedy, show me the security feed from the past five minutes on the main screen." He ordered angrily.

The main screen switched from tactical data to a video recording of the hallway. It showed the Military Police standing guard in front of the escape pods for a few minutes until a pair of soundless bullets penetrated both their heads and the Captain ran out into the escape pod wielding the sniper rifle.

Rage flooded the Lieutenant and his face shone bright red. In the best controlled way he said, "Call two medics and tell them to recover the bodies,"

"Aye, sir." The communications officer replied.

"Mitch, track the escape pod." He ordered his navigation officer

"Aye sir, tracking. Hold on a second," He paused, "He's changing course, looks like a vector towards...Voi?"

"Ike." He smiled

--

Ike hated liars. Unfortunately, this time, he had to become one. Ackerson program him for multiple reasons; one was to keep an eye out on the project and to report everything to the Colonel. To accomplish this, he received a special upgrade, the human will of lying. So when monthly reports came along he could effectively lie to the Lt. Colonel, adding in things to the report George didn't particularly want. When the Captain ordered him to erase his memory after the A.I had put together all the pieces, he disobeyed the order. The best thing was, he could just turn off any emotions that could give him away.

"We're starting our descent through the atmosphere now, approximate ETA to Nepal reads 15 minutes." Ike stated in perfect monotone.

"Good," The Captain looked at the on screen map, taking a few moments to check the calculations. Ike then noticed the subtle hint of confusion in his expression. "There's something wrong, if we were to arrive in Nepal, it would take another half-hour, in fifteen minutes we'll be in Voi, directly in brute controlled territory."

It was time to come clean. Ike was going to enjoy every moment of this. "Yes indeed."

The Captains face became dark red, "I ordered you to take us into Nepal." He growled

"You did. But I lied. Besides, ever heard the phrase 'The closer you are to danger, the farther away you are from harm'? It'll be a great place to hide, and I'm sure the Brutes will welcome us with open arms."

"What?! You're not programmed to lie! Turn this piece of shit around!" Sudden shock crawled over his face as he realized the extent of Ike's plot. "You're the one who called the MPs. You didn't initiate the memory wipe. How?"

"Ever heard of the phrase, monkey see, monkey do?" He grinned.

--

"Yes sir, it's definitely on a course to Voi." Matt said calmly over the priority com channel to the Lieutenant Colonel.

"Alright, thanks for letting me know. I'll send a Spartan Team over to recover Eisenhower. Make sure you contact the Brass ASAP."

"Yes, sir."

"Good luck."

"You too."

The COM link shut and Matt focused his attention back to the fight. "Target the nearest Covenant Battle cluster and launch a wave of our harpoon nukes. Then put us in orbit with Earth, I need to contact the Brass."

Kennedy appeared on the pedestal next to him, "The nearest Covenant Battle cluster contains a total of seven ships; four frigates, one carrier and two destroyers. You're lucky; they don't look like they're going anywhere soon."

"What will be the ETA on the nukes?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"Good, fire away."

"Aye, launching the nukes." Catherine replied.

When a regular nuke would detonate in space, the concussive force that would normally follow a detonation on Earth wouldn't apply to the vacuum properties of space. Nukes are truly destructive on Earth because of the atmosphere providing a massive concussion force. In space, the effectiveness of the nuke would be cut just to the radiation ionizing the hull and shields to an opaque colour. It would deliver enough damage to severely weaken the hulls but not crack the metal.

The Harpoons were meant to quickly close with their targets using the MACs as their initial acceleration and stay completely hidden until it's too late. They're shot under low power so that they don't show up on thermals, using the engines intermittently only to correct their course. They get around the reduced effectiveness by doing a point blank contact detonation within a dozen meters; there is a pressure wave because it will be the fusion plasma itself that will cut the ship in half like a plasma torch. The harpoons, using biased tamper layers, can direct the entire output of a detonation in one direction so even a two megaton Harpoon is more powerful than a 50 megaton standard nuke. Best of all, they require less material than a regular nuke, therefore making them cheaper.

"Ben, put us in orbit and establish a long range com unit, initiate a handshake with Sydney, priority channel."

"Yes, sir." His communications officer replied.

"Mitch, what's the status on that escape pod?"

"They just landed in Voi, sir. No electronic signals detected; Eisenhower must have shut off."

"And the Captain?"

"Barley alive."

--

_Shit! _The Captain thought as he pumped two more sniper rounds into a Brute who wielded a Fuel Rod Gun.

As soon as he had landed in the sand, shit hit the fan, _hard. _Ike immediately shut off after their exchange, and for ten straight minutes he had been fighting for his life.

Initial troops were light; a few low ranking scouts came and the Captain easily took them out. Then the Brutes realized who they were dealing with, an _officer. _They immediately sent more troops, and by the looks of it, to take him _alive. _That was not good.

Four more shots rang out, and each hit their target. He put his hand into his ammo pockets, looking for another clip. When his hands came up dry, he threw the weapon down and picked up his assault rifle.

It was an odd place to be having a fight; right in the middle of one of Africa's natural oasis. Two Brute squads were charging him, with a pair of Jackals trying to flank him.

_Like hell!_

He pumped his entire clip into both of them, and then took cover behind a palm tree when the spikes started shooting. Garth ejected his magazine and slapped in another one. He check both sides; making sure no one was trying to flank him again, then popped out of cover to receive two spike rounds in his knees.

He yelled in unbearable pain and pulled the trigger on reflex; peppering the trees and managing to hit a few birds. His eyes watered as he looked at his mangled knees. Blood and cartilage soaked his white uniform.

Two Grunts walked up behind him and grabbed his legs. "Get the fuck back!" He drew his pistol and emptied an entire clip into both of them.

A brute roared and shot him twice in the arms. He yelled out again in unbearable pain. His eyes started watering, but not from the pain, but from the realization of what brutes do to their prisoners.

At that moment, he cursed being a coward, at that moment, he wished it would all go away. But no, it was real, and as his skin became pale from losing blood, his life flashed before his eyes.

The last thing he remembered was two Brutes with glistening sharp teeth grabbing his arms, and knocking him out.

--

"He's dead, sir."

"Thanks for the update, I'll get Death Squad to recover Eisenhower."

"Alright, good bye, sir."

"Bye."

The exchange was quick and informative. The Colonel couldn't begin to explain what was going inside of him, feelings of rage, betrayal, and sadness all got put into a blender in his stomach. It made him sick.

"Death Squad, this Colonel Yeung. How did your mission go? Out."

The Sergeant's voice came over the com, not entirely all that clear.

"Sir! Mission Accomplished. We're returning to HQ now." He replied

"Belay that, I have a new assignment for you. You need to go recover Eisenhower just outside of Voi, I'll upload the coordinates and _other _tactical data to your HUDs."

"Ike, sir?"

"Yes. Good luck."

**A/N: And there you have it! Another long detailed action packed one. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Part One is almost complete! Huzzah! Thanks to my good friend Pat for suffering through 14 pages of wall after wall of text. As well as Havoc for helping me out with all the equipment.**


	8. Part One: Level Five

**A/N: Hey everybody welcome to the third no fourth, wait...fifth chapter. People, people, do you actually read these things anymore? Haven't you guys noticed a pattern here? I just replace the chapter number.....yeah. Anyways there are a few things I need to address and you MUST READ! Now that you have seen the big bold letters and have started reading this, we can continue. COME BACK; do not scroll down right away. Jackass, anyways for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to Havoc_Legionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Level Five**

**Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry**

**1914 Hours, November 27****th****, 2552 (Military Calendar)\**

**Camp Currie­­, 200 Kilometres West of Voi**

**Earth**

Thirty Pelicans and three Albatrosses descended from the cloudy regions of the sky and aimed their noses towards the ground. The hot African sun reflected off the hulls of the several flights of Longsword bombers who were flanking their advance, making sure that no Seraphs were gutsy enough to try an attack run on the Colonel's reinforcements. The Colonel was strapped into the padded seats of the lead Pelican with Aiden and Karen sitting next to him, chatting on the private com link set up in their helmets.

"So why is that Covenant Carrier sitting there again?" Aiden asked again.

George had just opened up his mouth when Karen beat him to it. "When the Covvies tried to break through the defence grid, that bastard there got nailed by a few of our MAC guns, but it managed to escaped to the planet's surface. Now, with its weapons and engines down, Truth basically told them to stay put. There 'lack of judgement' had cost them their path on their stupid journey."

"And now the Brute Captain is pissed and wants to prove his worth by killing everyone at Camp Currie." The Colonel added

"And we're stopping him." Aiden filled in.

"Unless you've got a better plan." The Colonel smiled

"I don't know, I heard New York is quite the historical site...."

"I'll be sure to remind Truth's ships that when they're glassing the planet." Karen joined in on the fun.

Karen and Aiden continued to talk as the Colonel pulled up the tacmap and topography charts to work on a game plan. Camp Currie was a few kilometres south of a very steep ridge. A good one hundred meter drop separated the camp to a grassy plane which stretched fifteen kilometres across, covered in hills that ascended to almost fifty meters. The field was filled to the brim with Marines and ODSTs. Further to the east was one of Mombasa's main bridges.

In the heat of the Marines retreat from areas the covenant had invaded the first time around, the leathernecks had set up road blocks, blew bridges, and flooded tunnels to stop the advance. The only thing that was stopping the Covenant's air support from advancing further into human held territory was the AA guns that they had set up to defend the refugee camps.

"30 seconds till touchdown!" The Pilot spoke over the intercom.

The numerous Pelicans slowed their descent as their landing procedures kicked into play. When the lead Pelican was five feet from the ground, Aiden jumped out first, followed by Karen and the Colonel. The ODST squad riding with them followed last and went to report to their commanding officer.

The colonel made his way to the control room, passing the foul smell of biofoam from nearby medical tents. The building was in the heart of the camp, and made of instant concrete reinforced by Titanium C plates. Inside were video screens and a command table which displayed the battle in real-time imagery. The colonel removed his helmet and approached the table with his entourage on his heels.

"Sir!" A Lieutenant approached the Colonel and sharply saluted.

"At ease, report Lieutenant."

"Recon squads have reported in. They estimate the current Covenant strength is at 13,000 troops, complemented by three scarabs with additional armour support. They'll be attacking within the hour."

"What about us?"

"Troop strength is around 1,300 Marines and 500 ODSTs. We have four LAAG warthogs, two Gauss and two of the machine gun grenade launcher variant. Armour stands at 23 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, three M808B Scorpions, five Black Scorpions, and the King. We also have two Howitzers and two Ballista MRLS."

They were grossly outnumbered. The three scarabs alone would decimate the entire regiment. The Colonel thought for a moment and planned his options; the Covenant battle plan would involve the armour leading while the Scarabs would be held in the reserves. The only way to eliminate the Scarabs would be to draw them out before they hit the ridgeline; the only way to do that would to give it a rabbit to chase.

It would be a risky plan.

-------------------------------------

**20th cycle, 45 Units (Covenant Battle Calendar) /**

**Aboard the Carrier **_**Sangheili's Doom**_

"Chieftain, we are ready to advance to the human line." A brute Captain reported.

The air around the bridge had been filled with anger and anticipation since their engines and weapons were knocked out of commission. The engineers, finally granted to the Jirlhanae after the Sangheili's fall from grace, had been working around the clock to fix the vital systems. Unfortunately, the Engineer's skill was useless without the necessary parts. The Brute Chieftain forced them try anyways.

The report had come from the Captain of the recon squads. They were supposed to leave to the front line to scout on the human defences as soon as they embarked from the ship, and that was fifteen units ago; this wasn't going to stand.

The Chieftain sat up straighter in his command seat and pressed his radio closer to his mouth. "Captain, do you value your position?" He snarled. The entire room went deathly silent, all listening to the Chieftain's response. The once active bridge of Brute officers came to a standstill.

"Yes, Chieftain." The Captain's response was shaky.

"And you value your place in the Covenant? And are willing to sacrifice yourself for the Great Journey?" The Chieftain lowered his voice.

"Yes mighty one."

"THEN WHY HAVEN'T YOU EMBARKED?!"

"Apologies, Chieftain. We were-"

"Shut up you swine! Attack the humans at once! I will not have my only chance at gaining the Prophet's favour ruined by uncertainty!"

"Yes, Chieftain."

"And Captain? If you value your line I would suggest you do your duty."

The line went dead in a silent acknowledgement. The Chieftain stood up in his deep black armour and addressed his officers, "There will be no more hesitation or uncertainty amongst you. If an order is passed to you, you will do it or so help me Forerunners I will have your head! We are the Prophet's vanguard and we will regain their favour!"

"These are the same Prophets who, when given the option, abandoned us when they could have used one of thousands of carriers to pick us up?" A Brute, also dressed in black armour spoke up from a dark corner of the command bridge.

The Chieftain grew wide eyed with the sudden retort from the nearby brute. He turned around to come face to face with him. His sharp, green eyes never faltered as they stared into the black recess of the Chieftain's own pair.

"Your opinions may have been acceptable when your uncle was around, but on my bridge, you will stow your tongue before I cut it off. Question me again and I will make you suffer a more dishonourable death then his."

The young Brute's dark brown fur bristled with the remark. "It will not happen again, Temperous." He spat.

"It had better not, Macellarus."

Macellarus stood tall and unafraid. His fur bristled again before he disappeared in the crowd of many Brute officers, glaring at the chieftain from afar.

"Deploy all ground forces. As soon as our recon forces come back I want the Grunts mobilized immediately. Use them to soak up whatever little ammunition the humans have left. After move in with the tanks once we know that there are none of the human traps. Afterwards send in the main force." The Chieftain commanded

"And what of the Scarabs?" His second in command, Arias asked.

"We will hold them in the reserve. I doubt we will need to utilize its firepower."

"Chieftain, this battle could be over in-"

Temperous roared and slashed his second and command in the throat, ripping his head off clean from the shoulders up. Everything went ghostly quiet once again.

"I stay true to my word, Arias." He muttered as a team of grunts dragged the headless body away. "Who is next in command?"

"That would be Macellarus, Chieftain." An officer spoke up.

_Great_. "Summon him to the bridge." He commanded

"Yes lord."

-------------

Macellarus exited the bridge and made for his private quarters. Other brutes and members of the cruiser stood at attention as he passed, he let them continue do so until he was out of their eye sight. _They better get used to it._ He thought.

His black armour clinked together as he continued down the length of the corridor. The purple hallways darkened the look of his armour, scaring other covenant away from him. As he traveled, more and more black armoured Brutes joined him in silence; all one in thought, all unison in motion. The leader's com unit started vibrating, but he quickly turned it off. The matters at hand were much more important than whatever the Chieftain wanted.

About fifteen black clad brutes were now entailing Macellarus. There was no one left in the hallway that could disturb them, or eavesdrop, because all of them were dead, and their bodies were being slowly hidden and burned. Mutiny was a touchy subject, after all.

They each entered Macellarus's quarters and respectively stood at attention as their leader sat down in his heavy gear. He lifted his helmet and let his sweat carry the scent of anticipation and anger to his comrade's nostrils.

Macellarus started growling and each one of the Brute's in the room followed, matching their leader's pitch and tone. An ancient ritual passed from one Alpha male to the next of the Carnificus clan. One that was thought to be dead until Macellarus's uncle had unified the clans under their banner and invoked their old spirit.

With him gone, things went back to the barbaric ways. Every single brute more greedy than the next; killing each other just for some false sense of power instilled by the Prophets. Macellarus was sure that the first chance the Prophets got they would stab the Jirlhanae in the back. If they could do it to the Sangheili-there protectors for thousands of years- then they could do it to the Jirlhanae. Anyone who was over zealous, or even associated themselves with the Prophets too much, were put down by their tribe.

The roaring and barking stopped abruptly and each brute in the room tore off their chest pieces to reveal and bloody hand print, tattooed on their chest. The pieces falling made no noise outside the sound proof walls of Macellarus's room.

Their leader stood and spoke, "Too long has Temperous lead us astray; too long has he followed in the shadows of the Prophets. Too long he has insulted our honour. If we do not end his reign now, he will lead us to death and destruction. "

One of his officers spoke up, "What of the upcoming battle? When we succeed the Hierarch will surely grant his honour back."

"No, Truth will not. There are merely a thousand humans here; there is no honour in killing them. After we are done with the humans we will still be stuck here. We must eliminate Temperous and his supporters and leave on our own mission. The humans are tenacious fighters; the only way we can truly beat them is by uniting our forces like they have with theirs. This is our mission, and it's why we must do it in the dark."

"How will we unite our brethren if all of them are as stubborn minded as Temperous?" asked his second in command, Rivalus.

"We start off with ship masters who we know supported my uncle and his ways. In turn we will get them to instil a sense of unity throughout their ships. When the time is right, we order them to assassinate the Alpha males on their ships, and I will rise and reclaim my throne."

Each of the brutes rumbled in acceptance.

"Good. Now go and prepare the troops for heavy combat."

All but one of the Brute Officers left to prepare their squads. Rivalus walked up to Macellarus. "A sound plan brother. Should we install the shield generators on our armour for the coming battle?"

"Only the officers and those we can trust. We do not know if the rest of the company will accept our plan. If they choose to rebel against us we will have the means to defend ourselves."

"But Macellarus, must we spill the blood of our own kin?"

"The end justifies the means. They will join with us, I am sure of it."

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile.....

Aiden, Spartan B017 stood next to one of twenty-three infantry fighting vehicles at the base of a fifty meter hill. His helmet fed real time imaging to the Colonel's command post, and as he scanned the windblown field in front of him he couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu.

Old memories would have to wait as he buried the feelings and commed Karen. A red light flashed on her little light in the corner of his HUD; while he waited, Aiden checked on the Marine sharpshooter teams on the top of the hill

"Red team, report."

"Sir, the recon forces will be in weapons range in only a few minutes. What are your final orders?";

"Leave a few survivors, preferably wounded so they can report back. Use your rifles from cover and don't give them a clear readout on our troop strength. " Aiden ordered

"Yes, sir." Aiden cut the link off as the Marksman team leader started relaying orders.

"Yes, Aiden?" Karen's voice popped in his speakers.

"This field, it reminds me of..."

"Yeah, I know. Don't think about it."

"Easier said than done."

"You're not the only one."

_Yeah, I know._ "How's echo squad holding up?"

"Itchy and on their toes."

"Good."

As Aiden made his way back to the IFV's, the guns started blazing and plasma started soaring behind him. Unfortunately for the Covenant recon forces, the Marine marksman can hit them from beyond 250 metres- the covenant rifle range- and take them all to hell. Instead of joining the fight, he tapped into Karen's point-of-view helmet camera to watch.

------

Her rifle rattled in her hands as she continued to lay her finger on the trigger, putting single round shots from 600 meters out into the foreheads of Brutes and Grunts. Lucky for her, the Covenant couldn't fire back; not only from their poor weapons range, but from the constant suppression from Marine Sharpshooters hidden throughout hills surrounding the area.

The Covenant recon forces still pressed on in a guerrilla style combat of fanning out to return fire and then retreating; trying to cover as much ground and information as possible. They still pressed on even when their casualties were rising higher and higher with each meter gained. Some lack of self preservation, or an abundance of self pride, Karen figured. So she decided to play into their ego.

Her SPI armour quickly camouflaged her and the rifle (upgrades from the Colonel himself) as she made her way down the hill. She slapped her rifle to her back, and drew the camouflaged VX-7 coated knife.

She was within twenty meters of the front line troops, and already Aiden was wondering what the hell she was doing. "I'm giving the Marines a lesson." Her reply went through one ear and out the other. Before Aiden could come back with a response, she cut off the link.

The Jackals as per Covenant doctrine, were with the front line troops, scouting the human defences. Their heightened sense of smell picked up Karen's scent, but couldn't pin her down to her camouflaged state. She left the jackals and grunts a lone to make for the remainder of the Brute forces.

Quickly, and professionally she slaughtered each brute that she crossed. The serrated carbide blade of her VX-7 combat knife slashed through the armoured hide of her opponents and delivered the deadly neuro-toxin. Even the smallest cuts unleashed it to quickly invade their systems, causing their brain functions to ground to a halt, and releasing every single thing that could flow.

The brute captain that was she was nearing picked up her scent almost immediately, and to Karen's surprise, its sharp paws struck her in the side of the head. Her camouflage overloaded and she crashed into the mud.

Karen quickly recovered into her combative stance, just as the Brute Captain charged head first into her, delivering a forceful head butt into her sternum. Karen grasped for the breath that was just knocked out of her. The Brute Captain pounced onto her and drew a silver crescent blade from its belt.

"You will die here Demon, to avenge my fallen comrades!" The Brute growled as the crescent moon blade drew higher and the grip around her neck grew tighter.

As her world was turning black around her, the animal part of her brain took over. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth started frothing at the lips. Karen's existence was effectively locked into a cage while her animal took over. She drew her legs to its chest, and kicked them out with all its might. The Brute flew back into the air and dropped its blade right into Karen's hand. She sprung to her feet and met her adversary's charge head on, locked in an epic hand to hand fight.

----------------------

The emotional rollercoaster taking place in Aiden's stomach made him feel nauseas. Every single commander ranging from Sergeants to the Colonel himself had asked him what she was doing, and all he could mutter without throwing up was "ego". A lesson was meant to be sent out the Marines about playing into the Brute's ego, getting them to think without reason and leading them into traps, and so far, not so good. In fact, all this did was make the Marines not want to piss off the Brutes anymore than they were ordered to.

On top of it all he felt so helpless. The Colonel ordered him to stay put, insisting she could handle herself. And before seeing Karen launch the brute three metres into the air with her legs, he very much doubted George.

Now, they were both locked in combat. Surprising to Aiden (on the account that he was the only one who could keep up to the Spartan's lightning quick moves), the Brute was doing a pretty good job of defending itself as well as dishing out a few of its own moves. It was all over now though.

Karen had unleashed a hellish fire of moves starting with an arm bar that popped it out of its socket, kicking it in the back of the knee and popping the bone out, and slicing the hand that tried to grab on to her off. The Brutes head was quickly snapped into an unnatural angle. The rest of the forces began to retreat, giving the humans a small taste of victory before what was to come.


	9. Part One: Level Six

**A/N: Hey everybody first I want to apologize. It has been what, four, five, maybe six months since the last update? Well I went through some changing times, and took an unannounced "leave of absence." I lost a lot of interest in writing and just Halo in general. Just a few weeks ago I started to remember how much fun I had writing, Halo or not. I had a lot of problems trying to get into this chapter and I realized what I was doing wrong. Hopefully what changes I'm going to be making (they will be very subtle) will be for the better. **

**Level Six**

**Reading Minds**

**1000 Hours, November 28****th****, 2552 (Military Calendar)\**

**UNSC HIGHCOM Facility, Sydney, Australia.**

"Lieutenant Colonel George Yeung. You were given command of all UNSC forces in at Camp Currie at approximately 1915 Hours, on November 27th. You had command of thirteen hundred marines and five hundred Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, as well as all armoured support in the area. Is this correct?"

"Yes, ma'am." The Colonel said to what he assumed was an aging woman, on his eleven o'clock. Her voice projected forward and echoed off of the surround walls in the large room. The briefing room he was in was pure black, and the demons behind the curtain were like ghosts, just voices with no physical body.

The dark room made him want to fall asleep; after all it had been over a day since he last slept. Everything in the past 24 hours had flown right by him; from entering the Sol System after the long trip from the training facility to seeing Phantom Squad in the hanger, and the unexpected encounter with the Brute Shock Troopers.

A voice called out to him from his thoughts, and realized someone was trying to ask him a question. "I'm sorry; could you repeat your question?"

"Colonel, it is not a difficult question to answer. We simply want you to recall what happened in your own words- never mind the report- at the battle for Camp Currie." A man's voice asked.

It was so hard to match faces with voices. Their petty fear game of trying to mask themselves in a shadow of black, and pointing an unbearable spot light at the "accused" only worked on the grunts. The Colonel knew all about their game.

"Yes sir. It started off with the Covenant sending out a recon company, after our forces had neutralized the majority of their scouts, we regrouped and pulled the armour forward with our troops in the reserve...."

**1959 Hours, November 27****th****, 2552 (Military Calendar)\**

**Camp Currie, 200 Kilometres West of Voi**

**Earth**

**One day earlier....**

Wind swept the rolling hills and grassy plains north of Camp Currie. The sun continued its bombardment of heat upon the soil, drying any moisture up. The hard, brittle soil crunched under the heavy weight of the human forces that made its way through the plains to meet its enemies head on. On the opposite side of the fifteen kilometre stretch, the grass was simply blown aside as the Covenant's armour hovered forward at a snail's pace, escorting the infantry and lumbering Scarab behind it.

A quiet piercing shot rolled out through the plains, so faint most probably couldn't hear it beyond the constant drone of the tanks V12 engines. Although quiet, it was quite the devastating shot as a rather large piece of the Scarab in the rear of the covenant formations fell off. The Colonels new King Scorpion- the human's checkmate to the scarab- was finally up and running, spitting out 90mm bore rounds, similar to that of the Gauss Cannons. Eight Scorpion class tanks lead the charge at the human front lines as twenty-three Infantry fighting vehicles, Leopards, supported its armoured comrades with its 30mm auto cannon main turret, two TOW-12 AT missile launchers, and a manual swivel turret mounted with an HMG.

Only a few kilometres separated when each army opened fire; with the humans unravelling a few tricks.

Aiden and Karen, supported by their Spartan-III brethren from Echo Squad, appeared from thin air and unleashed a hellish display of firepower on the covenant fast movers, in sync with the tanks armour piercing shots that destroyed too few of the Wraith tanks. In the distance, the King Scorpion was still chipping away at the Scarabs, slowly taking the behemoths down.

The Tanks, combined with the Spartans deception, seemed to do the trick though, and got the Covenant Commanders to pull back their remaining Wraiths. In their place, though, Prowlers moved up to cover the retreating artillery pieces.

Aiden reloaded his Rocket Launcher just in time to see the IFVs break through the tank lines to meet their covenant counter parts. Warthogs joined them in the fray, chasing after Ghosts and choppers alike. He finished the reload, and emptied the tube on two ghosts trying to make a break from a pursuing IFV.

The tanks continued to move up, forming a defensive line as warthogs defended the IFVs that were dispensing troops to fight the Covenant soldiers head on. The fast movers broke through the defensive line only to get pummelled by the 30mm cannons on the IFVs, as well as the mounted machine guns on the warthogs. IFV's broke off from the main attack to retreat to adjacent hills, dropping off Marine sharpshooters to cover the next part of the plan. Aiden took a quick look around, seeing the Colonel's plan unravel before his eyes. The barks of hundreds of the upgraded battle rifles-the M55A- unloaded onto the approaching Covenant Infantry, sucking up the bullets so the armour could be spared.

His Spartan senses kicked in as one of the Scorpion tanks in front of him exploded in shower of debris, sending large chunks of metal in every direction. He quickly rolled to the left, came up, and took everything in as his reflexes continued to slow time. Four Grunts and two Jackals were several meters in front of him, beyond the black, thick smoke that encased him. With only half a clip left he lined up his shot, using his motion sensor and the enhanced optical zoom on his M55A to place several three round bursts into each of them.

Realizing the smoke wasn't going to clear, he back peddled and hooked right just as the ground shook beneath him. In the distance, the scathed Scarab loomed forward, making its way towards the front lines. The humans countered by unleashing their Howitzer Artillery pieces and the Ballista MRLs. Hundreds of rockets pounded the seemingly indestructible armour as shells rained down upon the infantry.

"Time to run Echo, get out of there." A voice came over the Spartan's COM system.

"So you used your Spartans to camouflage and fool the brutes into thinking that your armour was defenseless?"

"Yes sir; in previous engagements the Covenant have adopted the tactic of using their fast movers-such as Ghosts, Choppers, Spectres, or Prowlers- to quickly get in weapons range before our tanks superior range and firepower could take them out. The mobility of these vehicles made it hard for our tanks to eliminate them in extreme close quarters, due to the fact that a tank shell at such close range could potentially harm the occupants and friendly forces in the vicinity. I simply exploited this tactic with the camouflaged Spartans wielding their anti-armour weapons. When the fast movers broke from the cover of their wraiths the Spartans took them out before they could do any damage to the tanks, allowing our armour to do some damage to their mortars."

The Colonel felt a rush of pride after finishing his explanation. The success of the mission was mainly dependent of the Brute Commander's ego; giving it an offer to good to refuse. The Brass discussed amongst them quietly, giving the colonel a moment to catch his breath.

The black room seemed to have gotten hotter, and beads of sweat ran down his face and neck the more he continued with his story. All record of time was lost when in this room, and the Colonel had no idea how long had passed.

"Now this tactic the Covenant use against our tanks-you could say, is no longer effective as it was with your new tanks?" A different voice spoke up.

"Yes sir, the upgrades made to the Scorpion class tank have made close quarter combat with the enemy fast movers much more effective; it frees the commitment of Warthogs as escorts due to the many weapon emplacements that are able to be fitted on to the hull of the tank. "

"Please, Colonel. Continue with your story."

"Yes ma'am," The Colonel replied while shifting his body into a more relaxed position. "this entire engagement was like a game of cat and mouse. Using the Brute's ego, we took our armour and used it as bait to lure their scarabs into the range of our Tank destroyer. Our forces retreated from phase line to phase line with armoured and sniper support towards the ridge line. Using the Artillery pieces we had at our disposal, we bombarded their infantry and the Scarab that followed our troops. After approximately three hours of this 'guerrilla' combat, our forces retreated to the final phase line."

"Was the scarab destroyed before reaching its optimal firing range?" A woman spoke up with a hint of concern in her voice.

"No...It wasn't, ma'am."

"TAKE COVER!"

Aiden grabbed an exposed Marine and hit the dirt.

A wave of super heated plasma erupted across the line, melting flesh and metal alike. The heat prickled the skin of Aiden momentarily, before the armour's systems kicked into play and cooled the temperature inside his suit. The Marine beside him, however, wasn't so lucky. Metal and cloth melted to most of his skin, his exposed back revealed fourth degree burns and internal bleeding.

"Medic! Someone get a medic!" Aiden yelled. Marines everywhere were either lying on the ground writhing in pain, or dead. He realized that a medic wouldn't be arriving in time for the kid, who only looked to be about twenty one.

"Oh shit." Karen's voice came over the com as the Scarab's main gun glowed green, charging it for another salvo. Excess plasma fell like a waterfall onto the ground, and when it seemed that the humans would be laid to waste, it stopped.

A faint sound was picked up by Aiden's ear; air was split as the King's main round tore a hole from the head of the scarab through the hull, and out the other end, hitting the main power core on the way. Aiden stared in shock as the Scarab slowly crumpled inward, and finally buckling under the massive explosion.

Roars and cheers erupted from the human lines as the behemoth crumpled, and its remains flattened the infantry unlucky enough to be near it. That didn't stop the Covenant War machine from advancing though.

"We sustained the majority of our causalities when that Scarab's gun hit our lines. Only after the King neutralized it was our forces able to retreat up the ridge line." The Colonel said quietly, remembering Aiden's helmet camera vividly and the images it seared into his mind.

"Earlier you said that this engagement was like a game of 'cat and mouse', did the Brutes follow you up the ridge line?" An elder man spoke up.

"Yes, sir."

"They're following you Aiden. They took the bait." George's voice came through the Spartan's com channel.

"Roger that." Aiden replied. He looked around at the human forces. The majority of the troops had already jumped in the trenches, waiting for the Brutes to follow up the hill. All remaining armour pulled back to the rear of the human formation. Only two Warthogs remained, with the majority of IFV's still intact; six tanks still remained. The artillery pieces still rained shells and rockets upon the Covenant infantry. The King Scorpion started chipping away at another Scarab that was slowly trying to catch up with the infantry.

A Marine ran up to Aiden, "Sir, everything is ready on the ridge line; waiting for your command." He handed a detonator to him.

"Good; we'll wait till the majority of their forces have made it up the hill." The Spartan replied

The Marine ran off to join his unit just as Karen, followed by echo squad, met up with him.

"How's it going boys and girls?" Aiden asked

A silent green acknowledgement winked on his HUD. Echo Squad never bothered to reply with emotion because they were Spartans to the core; inhuman, unresponsive killing machines to the naked eye. Only in their exclusive squad did they actually display feelings.

Aiden and Karen were Spartans, but they still retained their humanity. They still joked around, got angry, but even more so they actually showed it; something they were _ordered _to do when placed they under the Colonel. Under Lieutenant Ambrose, they were trained the exact same way he had been trained. The hypocrite, Aiden read his Classified Service Record. This was also different about the training the Hayabusans received. They were taught to utilize the emotions running through them, not suppress them.

"The Brutes will be in weapons range in 45 seconds!" A voice came over the com.

Aiden watched the countdown clock wink on in his helmet, and slowly dwindle down to zero.

"Click, click, BOOM!"

The once grassy, flat ridge line exploded into a shower of body parts, dirt, and metal. Boulders tumbled down the hill flattening Covenant in the way while debris rained down upon them. Smoke from the explosion shrouded the area, hiding the amount of damage done to the troops.

"We had our engineers rig the field with every mine we could muster up in the area. " The Colonel explained.

"That seems apparent, Colonel." A man snapped back.

"Excuse him, Colonel. Now in your report you mention a number of Brutes who were of interest in this campaign. What is the reason behind this Chieftain Macellarus, and the Commander Temperous?" A woman spoke up.

"Sorry ma'am, you have it backwards. The Chieftain of the carrier and all the forces was named 'Temperous', the second in command who had betrayed him was 'Macellarus', the commander of the shock troopers we encountered." The Colonel explained.

"And how did this information come across you?" A different, soft male voice echoed into George's ears.

"An injured shock trooper we captured and interrogated gave up this information. I also witnessed this betrayal first hand."

"Please, explain."

"No one is answering the com, Chieftain."

Anger was replaced by sheer shock inside the Chieftain. That was the second time the Humans had tricked him, in fact, the Chieftain realized this whole battle had been one trick. They used their armour to lure out their Scarabs, committing them to chasing the humans so their tank could destroy it, cloaking their troops making it seem like his fast movers could easily eliminate their "unprotected" armour, worst of all, they played into his pride, and Temperous bought into it like a seared roast.

"Pull back the remainder of the army. Contact Macellarus and tell him to get the shock troops ready. I am going to end this, with their demon's heads on pikes!" The Chieftain ordered and stormed through the door.

Rage started filling up the space the shock left behind as he continued to descend through the elevator to the Hangar Bay, and then down the gravity lift to meet with his second in command. The purple glow of the lift did nothing to calm him down, and it only angered him more that the ride was taking him so long. After several moments later and he descended the gravity lift, crushing the blades of grass with his heavy feet to Macellarus and the rest of the shock troopers.

A cool breeze swept the plains and bristled the grey fur on the Chieftain's back that wasn't covered by his armour. It drove deep into his bones, and ran a chill down his spine. Was this some sort of sign from the Forerunners? "You and fifty of the best will come with me on Choppers and flank the humans. We will make into the heart of the camp, and kill the one who commands this army. The rest of the shock troopers will lead the army up the ridge line to distract them; hold our Wraiths in the back with suppressing fire and bring out Scarabs forward; enough toying with them." He explained as Choppers started to descend the purple gravity lift behind them.

Macellarus stepped forward, carrying a heavy crate. He dropped it in front of the chieftain, and it opened to reveal a black set of armour. "Your new armour, Chieftain; we've added a shield generator and a link to your hammer so it is continually charged by the suit's power supply."

Temperous rumbled deeply in admiration. The armour was bulkier than his old one, with an added shield generator on the back. The shoulder pads had been enlarged, protruding upward covering the sides of his head. The leg armour was layered; it consisted of two layers of a thick leather, separated by a light metal. The all black armour made Temperous feel unstoppable, and knew his objective would be complete. After the final leather strap was tightened and , he boarded a chopper and waited for Macellarus to finish talking to his troops. Each one grumbled after whatever their second in command had said, and took command of their own choppers.

"I want ten scouts to arrive at the flank first, and report on any defences they may have there." Temperous ordered.

Macellarus grabbed a chopper right behind the Chieftain, and rode right beside him across the plain. The choppers broke through the wind trying to stop them. Sunlight was slowly fading away while clouds crept into it's path. As they moved up towards the front lines it appeared difficult for the Grunts to climb the now rocky and treacherous ridge line. After a few wraith mortars and some worthless grunts, a path had been cleared and the army continued to make its way. The remaining companies waited for the Grunts to soak up the bullets that were flying above them; behind them the Mortars bombarded the humans. When all was going well, another scarab was blown to pieces. Shock crossed the Chieftain's eyes, but Macellarus didn't flinch. His fur only bristled when the large chunks of debris crushed his Brutes.

"Chieftain! There are humans here but they have no armour support!" A shock trooper reported.

"Good, we are on our way."

The platoon of shock troopers revved their engines and followed the chieftain up the grassy plain, away from the army. The wind cut deep into Macellarus, but he ignored the sudden change in temperature as they sped along unnoticed. There was something about this planet Macellarus did not like, it was as if the weather knew what was about to happen, and changed it accordingly. Everything about the Humans seemed odd, ever since the beginning of the war, and their planet made Macellarus's suspicions worsen. He brushed paranoia aside and climbed the steep hill to rejoined the scouts, who were already taking on the humans guarding their flank.

Macellarus watched Temperous charge head on, pushing the throttle all the way to boost right through the human lines. "Don't deal with these vermin! Make for their command tent!"

The second in command and Rivalus briefly made eye contact, enough for Macellarus to give him a slight nod. His plan was in motion, and as soon as Temperous failed they would kill him. Rivalus pulled in front of him, and together with the rest of the platoon they made for the command tent.

Rain started pouring down, hampering Macellarus's vision and the foretelling the rest of the battle. As the weather worsened, their task seemed to be getting harder. Another large explosion light up the sky in front of them as the chunks of the final Scarab fell back towards the Earth. Temperous's utter failure as a leader would have stayed their feet even if they had defeated the humans here. They had over ten thousand troops on the ground, and the humans, who had a tenth of that amount, were obliterating them.

"There it is!" Temperous's voice came through his ear piece.

A very large cement tent was directly in front of them. Bullets intercepted the rain that was falling and chipped away at the incoming mechanized brutes. Macellarus boosted right up to the tent, dodged right and drove behind it, pulling the triggers on his handlebars. Thirty-five millimetre concussion rounds spewed out, killing the human defenders. After no one was left, Macellarus sped up and arrived at the front of the command tent.

A chopper near Macellarus exploded into a shower of debris and body parts. He couldn't tell which of his comrades had died, but nonetheless felt anger inside of him that he had to die for Temperous. More shots rang out and more choppers went down.

"It's their Tank Destroyer!" A Brute yelled out.

"Macellarus! The Battle is done here; we are pulling the army back to the carrier!" A shock trooper's voice came over the com.

"Good, we are just finishing up here." Macellarus explained. He pulled the throttle on his chopper and found the wounded Chieftain using the cement tent as cover to shield him from the incoming shells. He parked his chopper next to him, along with the majority of the shock troopers, with the remaining trying to hold off advancing human troops. Rain broke over his armor has he jogged over to the resting chieftain. He was crouched low, with his hammer resting at his side.

"They hit me. Can you believe it? Debris punctured my side and cut through my armour. But we are all here. We must go into the tent and kill that commander!" Temperous roared.

"No, Chieftain. We will not," Macellarus answered. Shock was replaced by anger in the Chieftain's eyes. "You have seen the end of your reign."

Temperous laughed. "And you will just slit my throat as the humans pound us with their artillery, with our brothers, _my soldiers_, standing and watching? I am twice the soldier you are!"

"You might be, but you have only half the strength." Macellarus answered and flipped a switch on his belt. He took two steps back and watched as a Power Drainer, rigged on the Chieftains armour, activated disrupting his shields and breaking the bonds on his armour. Macellarus walked up to the Chieftain and picked up his hammer.

"Why are you standing there?! Why are you not stopping this mutiny!?" He yelled at the shock troopers watching; his consciousness slowly fading as he lost more blood to his injury.

Macellarus chuckled, "Fool, they ordered me to do it." He swung the hammer, connecting with Temperous's head, sending it into the air.

"Leave the dead here. They will be remembered and avenged later. Make for the carrier!" Macellarus ordered as he strapped the hammer to his back. Before turning to leave Temperous's bloody body, he yanked a Gold chain off his neck.

"This belongs to me now." He mumbled. The new Chieftain quickly turned and jumped on his chopper, leaving dust in his wake.

"Yes ma'am. We witnessed this all through the camera's we had placed outside the walls of the tent."

That shook the brass up. They argued amongst themselves the meaning behind this occurrence, when the person with the answer was the one they had just rudely interrupted. The Colonel didn't get them; it was in the report, he was standing there with the answer, and yet each one had their own opinion, and as absurd as they were, they had to be shared.

How much longer had it been now, two, three hours? The warm air made him feel as if he was suffocating, sweat poured down his face and soaked his uniform. Not because of stress, or fear, but because the dark, stuffy room was starting to get on his nerves. George was desperate to check on his Spartans, and the sooner he got this done, the sooner he could go back up the Double-

"Colonel, thank you for explaining this all to us, it was very...enlightening." A woman spoke up and shook George from his thoughts.

"Colonel, we need to clear some things up with you though. Are you aware that before 24 hours ago you were listed as KIA on our Service Record? Are you aware that you have been secretly been growing Spartans without the Brass knowing?" A man angrily asked.

"In order to keep the project secret, my service record was altered to allow me to work on the project without any unneeded questions on my whereabouts. Project Hayabusa Two was not created in "secrecy" but was under observation by ONI Section three and four." George replied in monotone.

There was a pause before the next question; the mention of the secret branch of ONI definitely made them rethink their questions. If the Colonel knew that much, how much did he know? The Brass was sure to be asking themselves that question.

"....section four?" the colonel's ears picked up a voice mumbling quietly.

".....discuss this later." A different voice answered.

"I wa....answers now."

"As well as the previously mentioned Spartan Project, we are also aware of the Spartan three project that the Colonel has kept under wraps for all these years, secretly diverting funds from members of this very high command and ONI Section Three to fund the project. All files on this project have been recovered and thoroughly discussed. Every file on his computer was taken and analyzed, everything but your project. " A males voice, thick with a Russian accent, asked.

"I'm sorry sir, but I am not being asked a question." He replied

"Why?"

The Colonel took a moment to prepare his answers. "Although Colonel Ackerson funded and created the project, he gave me complete control and discretion over its progression. So in a way, he is not the project leader, I am. Any files pertaining to Project Hayabusa Two would be under my personal name."

"OK than, Colonel. We want all files pertaining to Project Hayabusa Two."

The Colonel prepared himself for the lashing he was about to receive. "Sorry sir, that's classified."

"Mudak..." The Russian officer mumbled.

"Excuse me Colonel, but did you just tell the highest ranking officials in the UNSC that they didn't have access to documents that are owned by a _Lieutenant Colonel_?"

"The contents of the files pertaining to Project Hayabusa Two are classified above Top Secret under the Office of Naval Intelligence, Section Four. Any relevant data is contained by various members of Section three. If you want those documents, you have to go through them first; I'm just following Protocol."

_And saving my own ass..._

"OK that's it. Turn on the damn lights cause we're not getting anywhere." Someone ordered angrily.

Lights winked on suddenly and the Colonel had to shut his eyes for a few moments to let them adjust. Sitting before him were thirteen members of the highest ranks in the UNSC; all but Lord Hood was present.

"I want to know what Section Four is, and why I haven't heard of it." Brigadier Carlos Halcón angrily asked.

"I agree." Colonel Will Chow spoke, glaring at Vice Admiral Kate Villinos.

"There are some things that not every members of this command know of for the better of humanity. Any further discussion is prohibited." Kate answered. George matched her voice to to the one who seemed to be asking the most questions. He assumed that she must have some sort of direct affiliation with Section Four to defending it.

_One more name on the list if people ever find out..._

"Excuse me _Vice _Admiral but I have bled more blood and sacrificed more soldiers higher than your pay grade, so don't give me that speech on the better of humanity. Whatever I want to know should be available." The Brigadier snapped back

"Carlos I will have you removed from this command and sent back to the front lines if you ever speak to a higher ranking officer like that again!" She roared. The room fell deathly silent, for the exception of Brigadier General Demetri Tsarkovsky opening his flask of what George assumed to be an expensive Vodka.

"Now, moving forward. George, are you aware that Colonel Ackerson has been captured by the Covenant?"

The Colonel was shocked. "No, I was not aware."'

"So you must understand that all files and documents regarding your Spartan Project would be only accessible by you...assuming the Colonel will no longer be joining us."

"I understand ma'am, but I am also bound by rules under ONI Section Four to not tell you."

"We will attend to that later. More importantly, we have no Section III leader, and seeing as you were Ackerson's protégé, and the developer of the new UNSC armoury, we are promoting you to the rank of Colonel as Section III leader. Congratulations, Colonel."

His eyes grew wide in shock, but tried his best to keep his emotions checked. "Thank you."

"We are leaving it under your command to decide who will have your Carrier, _Double Edged Sword. _You will report to the Africa branch of Section III in Kenya, where you will be debriefed and stationed. Colonel Yeung, you are dismissed."

George snapped a sharp salute, and turned on his heels to the exit. As he approached the door, a Marine-no doubt an ONI officer in disguise- handed him an oak box, and inside was his Colonel insignia. He quickly closed the box and reached to open the mahogany doors. He briskly walked out and into the cold hallway. The cool, recycled air refreshed him from the stuffy room he just exited. The meeting room was six stories underground, surrounded by Titanium-A plating. He slowed his pace to take a look around. Most of it was just one narrow hallway surrounded by stone getting to and from the meeting room; occasionally it would branch off to some other part of the building. After a few security scans and a quick elevator ride, he was on the first floor approaching Aiden and Karen, who were sitting comfortably talking to each other.

"How did it go?" Karen asked.

"Great." He replied

"You were in there for almost four hours. Wait; is that in your hand what I think it is?" Aiden asked curiously.

"My new promotion and job: Colonel of ONI Section III." The Colonel smiled

"Congratulations; will you still have command over the Hayabusans?" Karen piped up.

"Yes. I need to assign the Double Edged Sword to Matt though; I won't have command over it anymore." He said, disappointed.

They stepped outside into the bright Australian sun, which was still blazing above them. The three of them casually made their way to their warthog, in the safety of the parkade. His data pad vibrated violently in his pocket, and as he took it out he was bombarded with messages concerning the deployment of the Hayabusans. He ignored most of them and went through the list of squads and their objectives. Almost all of them were complete.

_Squad: Phantom._

_Location: Bermuda Triangle._

_Description: The retrieval of intelligence on Covenant activity and recovery of any artifacts._

_Outcome: Failed (MIA)_

The Colonel stopped short of the warthog he was about to jump into. He scrolled up and found Death Squad. He read the report on both missions in a matter of seconds, and quickly formulated a plan. He contacted the right people, and then contacted the Sergeant.

"This is Sergeant 484 of Death Squad. Lieutenant Colonel?"

"It's Colonel now. Do you have Ike?"

"Hello, Colonel. I see you have gotten yourself really deep in the ONI sharks now." Ike piped out on the com channel.

"Good. Sergeant, I want you to scrub whatever mission you have been assigned to. I am reassigning you to the Bermuda Triangle. Phantom Squad has gone missing and the mission has been failed. You're going in to find out why, because my Spartans don't fail. This is the highest priority, you leave immediately."

"And will I be going with him?" Ike asked.

"Yes. Good luck. Colonel out."

**A/N: Five months in the making... and I basically wrote this in one night....sorry for the long wait. I deleted and restarted this chapter many times, and the last format ended up being the one I liked the most. Hope you enjoyed. **

**This was awarded with InsaneDC Seal of Approval! Guaranteed until someone sees a mistake. So in that case, if you notice any grammar or punctuation errors, just shut up about it, I'm releasing this at 1:30am.**


	10. Part Two: Level Seven

**A/N: Hey everybody, I'm back. This is where things get interesting. Part One was all about character development, and now that Part Two is here it's all about ACTION…and plot development. But all you guys care about is the big guns, and explosions. So before you start reading I need to address a few things: for one thing I want to credit all the weapons to Havoc_Legionnaire, for he is a weapons god amongst us mortals, and I wouldn't have such a cool fanfic if it wasn't for him. Second, I want to thank my co-author Nitro288 for sticking with me and having to stop his fanfic as well and redoing it. Third, I'd like to thank my fans (those three in the back, you guys rock!) for waiting so long.**

**Level Seven**

**Ghosts ARE Real**

**0500 Hours, November 28****th****, 2552 (Military Calendar)**  
**Pelican-136, En route to Bermuda Triangle.**  
**Earth.**

The sun was slowly waking up from its rest as it continued to make its way higher in the sky. The ocean was restless as the wind chopped away at the water. Barely above sea level, a lone Pelican shot forward in the morning rays, delivering it's passengers to their next mission. The pilot quickly checked the navigation data, and after double checking with his co-pilot, they banked right and continued to make their way to the first island of the Bermuda Triangle. Crew Chief Wilson relaxed in his seat. There was nothing to worry about as the Pelican flew on auto-pilot. Well, there was one thing.

Wilson tensed up as he straightened in his seat. His co-pilot looked at him funny, but then got the signal and sealed the door behind them, separating them from prying ears.

"Well…what do you think?" Wilson whispered. He wasn't sure if the Spartans behind him could hear him or not, the cabin was sound proof and they were enclosed in their armour, but he wasn't taking any chances.

His co-pilot, Anderson, replied in the same manor. "I don't know; it's weird, Spartans showing up all of a sudden. Where were they when Reach fell? Not even Reach, the entire _inner colonies, where were they? _Something's up."

"Yeah, no shit," Wilson retorted, "but it's obviously ONI's business, and we'll never know what's really going on. "

"Can't help but worry though."

"Yeah…I'm not complaining though. I thought Blue Team were the last Spartans left, and then they show up. Huge moral boost for the troops, some say we might even win this war."

"Yeah, but they're not _like _Blue Team. Did you look at their armour? Pure black, and their helmets too! Two piercing eyes like a falcon."

Wilson chewed over the statement in his head. Anderson was right; these Spartans gave off a weird vibe, not like the original ones. Lucky enough for Wilson and Anderson, they had the honour to be the pilots for one of the Spartan's missions, and the vibe the new ones gave off was definitely different.

His attention was slowly drawn back to reality. He checked the NAV data, and made preparations for landing. He turned on the intercom, "Death Squad, prep for landing, we're touching down in ten minutes."

In the back, the six members of Death Squad rose from their seats and gathered their gear. Adam got up, and hit the button for the rear hatch to open. The sun's rays filled the cabin and blinded his eyes momentarily. Instead of putting his helmet on, he snagged a pair of silver anti-flash glasses that a Marine no doubt left behind on the seat.

The heat felt good on his skin, and he relished the moment. The water sparkled underneath him from the reflections of thousands of little fish, enjoying their freedom. Behind him, Chris walked up and pulled the charging handle on his silenced Scar.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He said in admiration.

Adam nodded in silent agreement. Earth truly was a beautiful planet, which made it all more worth fighting for. He replaced the glasses with his helmet, and once again he was enclosed in his armour. The Sergeant turned around to face his squad.

"Aaron, what the hell is that?"

The heavy weapons specialist unhooked a large wooden box from its secure holding on the bulkhead floor. He used his plasma blades to open up the box, and grabbed the meter long M7057 Flamethrower.

"And you're going to carry that thing the entire time?" Adam asked in disbelief.

"Duh. " Aaron replied. He grabbed a thick leather strap, attached it to both ends of the flamethrower, and slung it on his back. He picked up his silenced Scar fixed with a grenade launcher.

The rest of the team took the standard gear, Silenced Scar rifles with the attachment of their choice and an M22. Adam holstered his Arc Blade and walked over to the crate to take a look inside. "Aaron you missed some stuff."

"What?"

The Sergeant took a look at the inside of the crate, then with one arm, took out the board that appeared to be the bottom. Underneath it was five smaller boxes and a sheet of paper.

Amanda walked over, "What does it say?"

Adam took a glance at the paper and replied, "New ammo for the Scars; called the Explosive Ultrasonic Transducer round. Basically the guys in Mars combined the high explosive and armour piercing round. 108mm Rifle Magnum"

"Finally! No more shooting a Brute and watching as the bullet goes through him without stopping him." Chris voiced all of the Spartans joy. Too often they saw their bullets over penetrate the armour of the Elites or Brutes without any internal damage done. As quickly as the bullet entered, it left, leaving the foe still standing.

Nick got up and helped Adam distribute the ammo to his squad mates. Each Spartan emptied the magazines on their assault rifles and pistols, and traded the depleted uranium for the EUT rounds.

"Sergeant, we're seeing green smoke at the LZ. Are there suppose to be friendlies on the ground?" The pilot asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Must be Phantom Squad." Ward mumbled over the TEAMCOM.

"Yes, it's not a problem." The Squad Leader replied.

"Alright, this is it Spartans. Good hunting." The Pelicans intercom snapped out.

The wind carried the drop ship forward as it decelerated, causing the ocean to crash upon the sandy beach. As it made its approach, it pulled a 180 to let the Spartans jump out on the fly. Adam's boots crunched the sand underneath him.

"Is that Team Chimera?" Amanda asked in surprise before she jumped out of the Pelican. Adam looked up saw three Spartans running towards Death Squad. All wore the standard Mark VII Rogue, but after growing up with the same people your entire life, you knew just about everything about them, so they recognized them immediately.

"Yeah it is; what the hell are they doing here?" Nick asked.

"Well, we're about to figure out." Adam opened a com link to the pilot and told them to stay put for a few minutes. He briskly walked toward the three man unit that comprised of Team Chimera. The three man team worked as an espionage and intelligence gathering unit, under permanent loan to ONI Section One. Death Squad hadn't seen them in years.

"Death Squad! It's nice to a see some friendly faces." Exclaimed their squad leader, Walter-288.

"You too, Walter." Adam said as they clasped each other's forearm. "But what are you doing here? Where's Phantom?"

The squad leader shifted his weight to one leg, the universal Hayabusan action when something bad happen, and they didn't know how quite to put it.

"We were sent to gather intelligence on the Covenant operation they had going on here. When we had reported that they were after Forerunner technology, The Colonel told us Phantom squad was being sent in, and we were being reassigned to Africa. But when our drop ship came into pick us up, it got hit by Banshees and we were driven deeper into the jungle. Our COMs are being jammed and we were never able to link up with Phantom. So you're guess is as good as any as to their whereabouts. The Covenant Operation is still going on here so that's not a good sign." Walter explained.

After hearing the explanation, he immediately tried to raise the Colonel, but all he got was static. "Shit." He exhaled, "Any idea what's causing the COM interference?"

"No idea sir. If it were the Covenant they'd need a ship to do that for them, as far as I know they don't have a portable com jammer specifically targeting the super secret long range Hayabusan channel." Jon, the "optimistic" member of Team Chimera sarcastically answered.

Aaron nodded in agreement. He walked into the tree line and took a look around. "Well, we might as well get going, huh?"

Adam nodded, and then looked to Walter. "The Pelican is willing to bring you back to base, or you could stay here and help us out."

Walter stared at the Pelican for a few moments, and then after consulting his team he replied, "We want to figure out what happened to Phantom as well. We'll stay."

"Great! Just like old times." Chris said happily.

"Thanks for standing by, Chief. You're free to go." Adam said to the pilot.

"Alright Spartans. Good luck."

Dylan, the third man of Team Chimera, said over the TEAMCOM, "Really? A Flamethrower?"

"Yeah! Why not?" Aaron replied defensively.

Dylan paused, "Never thought of it like that."

"Alright, we move fast and quick through the brush. Team Chimera will lead us to the last known position of the Covenants base of operations. Stay spread out to cover as much ground as possible, silenced weapons only and radio silence." The Sergeant of Death Squad ordered.

All nine Spartans entered the jungle at a speed of thirty kilometers, only slowed down by the thick brush. While Adam was running, a cold sensation drove up his neck and into the back of his head.

"Welcome back, Ike. Did you have fun?" Adam asked the A.I. who had made his head his new home.

"Rummaging through the Covenants intelligence is always fun." The cheerful A.I. replied. Ike, after changing Captain Beaver's destination, and ultimately ending his life, was picked up by Death Squad and was now assigned to them. "What are we up to now?"

"The usual." Adam replied as he dodged a meter long branch.

Ike remained silent so Adam continued running, following Team Chimera. The nine Spartans stayed in a loose arc formation with Dylan at point, Walter and Jon staggered to the right and left, and Death Squad spread out in between.

After several minutes of running, a red acknowledge light burned on in Adam's HUD. All nine Spartans halted in the waist high brush. Ahead, Adam could spot Walter signaling him to come forward, so he slowly made his way to the front of the pack in a half crouch. Team Chimera's Squad Leader used two fingers to point at his eyes, and then pointed to the ground. Adam pushed aside the meter long grass in front of him, and below lay a body.

It was a Spartan from Phantom.

The body was face down, so Adam grabbed its shoulder and flipped it over. A deep gash cut through the abdomen of the female warrior. Walter made a cutting motion with his hand.

_Energy sword? _He asked.

Adam shook his head. No, there was no way an energy sword can cut through the aggregated diamond nanorods which made up the armour. His gloved finger felt around the edges of the gash, brushing aside fresh ash.

Walter looked up, then down and started writing something in the soil, a name.

_Jess._

Adam nodded his head. It was Phantom's sniper, Jessie-252. One of the best Snipers the Hayabusans had to offer.

Worry set deep in the Sergeants stomach. What the Rogue Armour lacked in shield strength was made up it in the rock hard nature of the diamond nanorods. The wound was nothing he had ever seen before; a normal plasma weapon could not have burned such a symmetrical line through the nanorods, about ten plasma rifles had the amount of energy required to burn through it, and only when they were concentrated on the same spot on the armour. A highly unlikely feat that Adam doubted even Elites could accomplish.

Two gloved fingers tapped Adam on the back; Amanda was behind him, motioning him to follow. They crept through the brush where Aaron crouched, looking over another body. This Spartan's left leg had been cleanly burned off. Dark red pools of blood had seeped into soil and stained the grass.

Aaron looked up at Adam, palms face up, shoulders shrugged.

_No idea._

"Ike, are you recording this?" Adam asked.

Ike must have been reading his thoughts, "Yes. Profile doesn't match the energy output of Plasma based weapons needed to burn through the armour. This is something different, not of Covenant origin."

"A Forerunner technology the Covenant unearthed, perhaps?"

"Maybe. " Ike trailed off into thought.

His HUD's acknowledge lights suddenly burned amber twice, and green once: the signal for him to come to their position.

_More bodies. _

The Sergeant made his way to Nick first, then Ward, and then finally Chris. As he approached the final body, he recognized it immediately.

"Paul…" Ike said.

The Lieutenant's helmet had fallen off, and his brown lifeless eyes stared back at him. The skin on his neck was blistered and red. His chest piece was mostly missing and only ash remained as a clue to as to what had happened to it. The black bodysuit underneath had melted to his skin.

Chris closed his eyes.

Adam didn't want to show it, but he was rattled. Chris must have felt it too, and he put his hand on his Sergeant's shoulder. They had all respect and admired the leader; his death would be a huge blow to the moral of Hell Company.

"There's a body missing." Ike suddenly said.

Adam thought about it. He was right; there were _six _members of Phantom Squad. Where was Brian?

The Sergeant opened the single-beam laser TEAMCOM system, and said, "All of Phantom Squad has been accounted for except for one, Brian-250. We'll continue heading to our primary objective. New secondary objective: we find him." He opened up his HUD database, listed Phantom Squad MIA and updated the mission objectives.

Amanda crouch walked up to Adam, and handed him a thumb sized data chip. He carefully took it from her hand, and inserted it into the port on his gauntlet. A little red timer on his HUD winked on.

The countdown timer till the fallen Spartan's armour self destructed.

As much as Adam wanted, they couldn't bring the bodies with them, it would slow them down too much. Their cremation was their right, and Adam was happy to give them some sort of finality after their passing. The Sergeant made the signal to continue forward, and together they continued running through the brush.

The sun shone through the trees and light up their way. As they ran, the jungle became less and less dense; a small stream cut through the soil and rock like a snake, trees had fallen over, creating a dangerous path. The stumps they left behind were covered in ash and soot. Adam slowed down and took a closer look at a fallen tree.

Another clean cut, which added to his fears even more.

_Something is not right about any of this: the burns on Phantom Squads body, the way the trees have been cleanly burned. Have the Covenant unearthed some sort of weapon? _If they did, Adam thought, they'd have to take it from them. No matter the cost.

Dylan once again flashed his acknowledge light red twice. The Spartans halted, expecting another body.

A voice whispered, "_Olly olly oxen free." _

A lone Spartan ran out of the brush, Scar strapped to his back. He quickly crouched, and approached Adam.

"Brian." Adam sighed with relief.

"It's good to see you Sergeant." Instead of saluting, they clasped each other's forearms.

"What happened here?"

Brian looked around. "My squad and I were en route to the Covenants Base of Operations, not far from here. When we got there, we saw that they had unearthed some sort of bunker. Paul told me to go a little farther up and recon. I used an active camouflage to approach them without getting spotted," He took a breath, clearly getting upset, "just a quick look inside and then bail out. Well, I stepped inside and these…things attacked us." He paused for a second, then suddenly said, "Remember on the way here, all eight companies were shown the Halo information from Cortana and the Master Chief? What were those floating guards called?"

"Sentinels." Amanda answered

Suddenly it hit Adam. "That's where I've seen these burn marks before! The Halo Sentinels used the high energy beams to burn the flood!"

Brian nodded, "Yeah but these ones are different. They looked nothing like the ones on Halo. It was an orb, surrounded by three cylinders that floated around it. They had energy shields too." He paused again and shifted his weight to one of his feet, "The Covenant was caught off guard. The majority of their forces were wiped out. I got out of there as quickly as I could, but when I got outside my squad was already gone. I tried running after them but I couldn't find them. I haven't been able to link up with them since."

"They're dead. I'm sorry Brian but the Sentinels got them." Chris explained.

It was hard to read Brian behind his faceplate. Death had never been experienced by the Hayabusans. They were trained, and taught that they were invincible. They didn't know how to cope with it.

Brian simply fell to the ground, and just sat there in disbelief. "We have to get their bodies, we can't leave them here." He choked.

Adam checked the timer in his HUD, "No, we can't. I activated their fusion reactors to cremate them. "

Brian looked up and nodded, agreeing with his decision. "There's one more thing you should know Sergeant."

Adam looked at him curiously, "What's that?"

"When I was looking for my Squad, I came across a team of Commando Elites."

"Elites? What are _they _doing here?" Jon asked the question that was on everybody's mind.

"I don't know, but I've been tracking them ever since. "

Everything went FUBAR faster than Adam had a chance to figure out what happened next. But at one moment he was sitting next to Brian talking, next thing he knew he was thrown into a tree by an explosion that was too close for comfort.

The tree snapped from the crushing weight of the Spartan in his MJOLNIR armour. Adam quickly rolled to his feet and looked around. In the air he saw his opponent. Like Brian said, it was silver, rounded object with a crystal eye. Surrounding it, somehow, floated three cylindrical objects. Its eye heated a dark red, and another pure energy blast focused on the Sergeant.

This time, however, he was not caught off guard. He dodged the shot with super human speed, and ran.

"Brian! Take point and bring us to that bunker! We need to recover whatever is inside!" Adam shouted over the TEAMCOM.

Ahead, Brian sprinted forward and hooked right. The rest of the Spartans spread out as they were chased by now _four _of the Sentinels. The Spartans sprinted, rolled, juked right and left and whatever else they could muster to keep the Sentinels missing. Trees burst into flames, dirt was blown into the air and super heated ionization blistered Adam's skin.

Ahead, there was another clearing in the brush. The Sergeant was the last one through and around him eight Scars erupted into a hail of silenced automatic spray. The Sentinels shields popped up and stopped the EUT rounds.

Adam took cover behind a rock and started spraying the drones as well, but the bullets weren't penetrating their shields. His Spartans were doing everything right. They were working in teams of two, covering each other as they changed positions so the Sentinels couldn't get a fixed shot on them.

"Brian! How far are we!?" Adam asked while popping out of cover to put a three round burst into the Sentinel.

"About a hundred meters past this clearing sir!" Brian replied. He loaded his grenade launcher attachment and fired it at the sentinel. The grenade missed the center eye of the drone and erupted behind it once it made contact with a tree. The tree exploded into wood shrapnel as the top half came crashing down on their foe.

"Well that's convenient." Aaron muttered over the TEAMCOM.

"Everyone! Load grenades and hit the trees around the drones. When you're empty make a break for it!" Adam ordered and loaded a 50mm thermobaric grenade. He remembered the last time he used the explosive device, and hoped it would have the same effect on the sentinels as it did on the Brutes.

He pulled the trigger and turned on his heels. He pumped his legs as fast as he could, accelerating to a top speed of 70KpH. In mere moments he arrived at the bunker, EUT rounds flying past his head as his team gave him cover. The metallic bunker lay above ground level, in front of it a control panel-no doubt unearthed by the covenant-was used to raise the building from the ground. He hoped over a six foot pile of dirt and took cover behind him. All accounted for except Ward and Brian.

They both arrived sprinting towards the bunker. Ward turned to take a few shots at the Sentinels that were chasing them.

All in an instant everything slowed to Adam, and he saw it all coming together. Two Sentinels came out of the brush, somehow conjoined, to Wardy and Brian's right flank. As Ward turned to face these new opponents, their spheres glowed a deep red, aimed for Brian who was slightly ahead of the sniper.

"They're not going to make it." Nick exclaimed.

Adam could have sworn he saw Ward look at him one last time.

In an instant Ward pushed Brian with all his strength forward as the combined superheated blast vaporized the sniper.

"NO!" Adam yelled.

Dirt and rock exploded where Ward once stood. Adam looked through the smoke but he couldn't see his friend. He brought up the roster on his HUD, Ward's signal was missing.

Brian jumped behind cover and started firing his assault rifle.

"Adam! There's a terminal looking port by the door, insert me and I'll get it open." Ike said.

Without responding the Sergeant got up and inserted Ike into the port. The pain and grief of losing his friend started to overcome him. He couldn't fight, he couldn't focus. The rifle felt too heavy to hold up, so he dropped it and sat behind cover.

He vaguely realized that someone was calling his name. It was Chris, he was yelling at him to get up and fight. But what was the point? The Sentinels couldn't be killed. They did everything they were taught and they still couldn't kill them.

"Ike! How much time left!" Chris yelled.

"Only a few more minutes!" he frantically answered.

Brian looked at Adam once, and saluted. "I'll buy you guys time!"

"Brian! No!" Aaron yelled.

The lone Phantom Spartan ran out and challenged the Sentinels. Adam watched as he loaded grenades into his launcher and fired away. Two of the grenades hit his target, and a Sentinel fell from the ground.

"Got it! Everyone inside!" Ike said.

The remaining Spartans ran inside, and Ike sealed the door behind them.

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed it! Things start getting heated up these next few chapters. Happy New Years everybody!**


End file.
